United States: The effectiveness of this season’s influenza vaccines has been about 42 percent so far, as per the new interim estimates of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
About CDC’s meeting on Immunization Practices
On Wednesday CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, the details about the latest vaccine effectiveness were discussed.
As CBS News reported, Sascha Ellington, head of the CDC’s influenza prevention and control team said, “We’re right in the range that we typically see when the vaccine is a good match with the viruses that are circulating. Good VE and it’s working consistent with past years.”
Each year updated vaccines are made available – Reason
Each year, the prevailing strains selected to be targeted by flu vaccines, tweak themselves, therefore health authorities project to create the best match to the circulating viruses each season.
These years, vaccines have been made to attack four varieties of subtypes of flu- two from the influenza A group of viruses, and the second one from influenza B.
According to the estimates from four ongoing studies, which are backed by the agency. It was made by actively testing patients and drawing on records from immunization registries, clinics, urgent care services, emergency rooms, hospitals, and health insurance claims across the US, as CBS News reported.
Effectiveness of vaccine this season
The experts have revealed that the estimates showed the effectiveness of vaccines was between 52 percent and 61 percent this season for the children’s protection against influenza hospitalization.
The shot’s effectiveness in adults was shown to be 41 percent to 44 percent.
According to Ellington, although the effectiveness of the vaccine is looking good this season, it’s concerning that there is a decline in vaccination uptake, which could lead to a few more hospitalizations and deaths that otherwise could have been prevented by vaccines this season.
She said, “To prevent flu hospitalizations and deaths on the population level, we need both good vaccine effectiveness and we need people to get vaccinated,” reported CBS News.
Effectiveness for Influenza B is very high this season – Experts
The effectiveness of this season’s vaccine is especially high for influenza B infections, as said by Ellington.
According to the latest data collected from outpatient settings such as urgent care clinics, and emergency rooms, the effectiveness in adults is 78 percent while it is 64 percent in kids to provide protection against influenza B
Ellington said, “We really have to go back a number of years to look at influenza B effectiveness. And when you go back for those older years, you do see it ranging usually in the 40 to 60 percent range,” CBS reported.
Influenza A protection by vaccine
Influenza A, which accounts for the maximum number of cases, vaccination showed similar results as in the previous years – in kids, it is 46 percent to 59 percent, and in adults, it is 27 percent to 46 percent for outpatient settings.
As per the data from public health labs, the majority of tests had been performed from a subtype of influenza A known as A(H1N1)pdm09, a descendant of the swine flu virus. The same virus was responsible for causing the pandemic in 2009.
What major changes are to be made in upcoming new vaccines?
The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is set to vote on the new recipe for the next season’s influenza vaccines. New estimates came to light at a meeting of its Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee, as CBS News reported.
Moreover, panels of the FDA and World Health Organization (WHO) have also called on flu manufacturers to remove obsolete components of the vaccines, those targetting influenza B Yamagata subtype, which already disappeared during the COVID-19 pandemic phase.
Dr. Arnold Monto Wednesday said in an article published by the New England Journal of Medicine co-authored by officials from the FDA and the U.K. Health Security Agency that, “As a result, it is likely that in the United States, all influenza vaccines in the 2024–2025 season will be trivalent,” as reported by CBS News.
He wrote further, “Replacing the B/Yamagata component with another component or formulation will require further stepwise planning and is more of a long-term goal for improving vaccine effectiveness.”