Influenza News

Infants born to mothers who received influenza vaccine during pregnancy were less likely to be hospitalized for acute respiratory illnesses during influenza season compared with infants born to unvaccinated mothers, according to study results.

In a reversal of its recommendation last year, the CDC Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices has voted to approve an update for the 2016-2017 season stating that the live attenuated influenza vaccine, offered as a nasal spray, should not be used in any setting.

NanoViricides is collaborating with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital to further advance the company’s anti-influenza program, according to a press release.

The FDA recently approved Flucelvax Quadrivalent — the first seasonal influenza vaccine to be cell-derived and to protect against the four major strains of influenza A and B — for patients aged 4 years and older, according to its manufacturer.

Findings published in Pediatrics showed that only 10% of pregnant women surveyed over 9 years had received the influenza vaccine. In addition, newborns were found to have a reduced risk for influenza when their mothers were vaccinated.

Recent findings published in The Journal of Infectious Diseases showed that nonvaccinated children could be consecutively infected with influenza A virus then influenza B, suggesting that influenza A may not provide cross-protection against influenza B.

BALTIMORE — Lisa M. Dunkle, MD, chief medical officer and head of clinical research at Protein Sciences Corp., discusses results from a recent phase 3 trial that evaluated the safety and immunogenicity of a recombinant quadrivalent influenza vaccine, Flublok, which was compared with an egg-derived inactivated influenza vaccine, or IIV. Carried out during the 2014-2015 influenza season, the study showed that Flublok was 30% to 40% more effective in preventing influenza compared with IIV.

BALTIMORE — Peter Palese, PhD, professor and chair of microbiology at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, discusses recent progress in the development of a universal influenza vaccine. Palese was the keynote speaker at the Annual Conference on Vaccine Research.

As the 2015-2016 influenza season is coming to an end, Infectious Disease News has compiled a list of five stories that added new information about the influenza vaccine.

The 2015-2016 influenza season has been milder than the previous three seasons and appears to have peaked later than normal, according to the CDC.