http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/738038FDA Panel Keeps Same Formulation for 2011-12 Influenza Vaccine
February 25, 2011 — Meet the new influenza vaccine: it's the same as the old one. The trivalent vaccine for the 2011-2012 influenza season in the Northern Hemisphere will probably be essentially a clone of the current season’s vaccine, ruled members of the Vaccine and Related Biologic Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) to the US Food and Drug Administration today.
In 3 separate votes, the committee elected to retain the current formulation of the vaccine, containing the following components:
excerpt:
Military Data Suggest Coverage Problems
Data from the global laboratory-based influenza surveillance system maintained by the US Department of Defense (DoD) indicate that there is good agreement between the current vaccine components and the circulating influenza strains, reported Kevin Russell, MD, a captain in the US Navy, director of the DoD’s Global Emerging Infectious Surveillance and Response System, and deputy director of the Armed Forces Health Surveillance Center in Silver Spring, Maryland.
But there is also evidence from a study of 132 active-duty military and dependents suggesting that overall vaccine effectiveness in this group was only 59.7% (95% confidence interval, 51.3% - 68.1%), Dr. Russell said.
In addition, evidence from sentinel surveillance studies suggests poor vaccine protection against A/H1 strains, particularly among those who received the live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) compared with the inactivated vaccine (TIV).
An analysis of data from 36 people with influenza-like illness showed an odds ratio of 2.70 for an illness with flu-like symptoms among those vaccinated with LAIV compared with TIV, Dr. Russell said.
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