With the rise of patients visiting doctors for flu vaccines, The CDC (Center for Disease Control and Prevention) predicts that the influenza vaccine being used for flu this season will be less effective than last year.
These predictions were based on the effectiveness of the vaccine in five South American countries. The past flu vaccines have shown a significant decrease in risk of hospitalization for high-risk groups (people who are more susceptible to flu) by 35 percent in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Paraguay, and Uruguay. For the last flu season, the vaccine had a 51.9 percent effectiveness in those countries.
“It is natural for the flu vaccines to drop in effectiveness overtime,” Kevin Kim (10), Medical Society (MEDSOC) member, said. “But I wasn’t aware that the data was based on South American countries to analyze future trends.”
Depending on how well the vaccine works in South America, it provides us an idea of how well the vaccine will work in North America. This is because the flu season runs at different times: April to September in South America and October to April in North America.
“There are a lot of different viruses that cause flu, and the goal of the medical community is to tailor the vaccine so that it protects against the most common viruses in your area,” Angela Campbell, AP Chemistry teacher, said. “The reason the vaccine can be a hit or miss is because they might be wrong about which viruses end up being widespread.”
As there have been changes in the statistics of flu vaccine effectiveness, the target patients for flu vaccine also differs from past years. CDC estimated the vaccines were 41-44 percent effective in preventing flu-related hospitalization in adults and 52-61 percent effective for children.
“Different mutations can happen that lead to different strains of flu,” Niko Lambert, AP Biology teacher, said. “This can lead to certain strains that are resistant to the vaccine which will affect the efficiency of the vaccine.”
However, this year’s flu vaccines for the United States that protect against viruses, will aim to target three strains that are expected to circulate: H1N1, H3N2, and influenza B. Following up this information, health officials suggest that everyone 6 months and older should get a flu vaccination.
