The fall season brings Americans cooler weather, football, pumpkin spice lattes, and, also, the dreaded flu.
As of October 2, the WHO and NREVSS laboratories collaborating with the CDC to track influenza across the country reported 387 confirmed cases of flu, with four different strains among them. These include: Influenza A (H3), Influenza 2009 H1N1, Influenza A (subtyping not performed), and Influenza B.
CDC FluView 2015
The seasonal flu vaccine protects against the influenza viruses that research indicates will be most common during the upcoming season. All of the available vaccine options this year were designed to protect against the following:
- A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09-like viruses
- A/Switzerland/9715293/2013 (H3N2)-like viruses
- B/Phuket/3073/2013-like viruses. (This is a B/Yamagata lineage virus)
Some of the 2015-2016 flu vaccine is quadrivalent vaccine, which also protects against an additional lineage of B virus. For this season that will be a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus. This is a B/Victoria lineage virus.
To track this year’s flu vaccination coverage and get more information on vaccination trends, visit the CDC’s FluVaxView.
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