Thursday, June 27, 2013

New research finds flu shot effective regardless of circulating flu strain

After I had the swine flue shot years ago, I didn't get sick for three years.

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-06/smh-nrf062513.php

Public release date: 25-Jun-2013
Contact: Kate Taylor
St. Michael's Hospital


New research out of St. Michael's Hospital has found that despite popular belief, the flu shot is effective in preventing the flu, even if the virus going around does not match the vaccine.

"It's quite common for people to say they are not going to get the flu shot this year because they've heard it does not match the strain of flu going around," said Dr. Andrea Tricco, the lead author of the paper and a scientist at the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital. "However, we've found that individuals will be protected regardless of whether the flu strain is a match or not."

-----

The study looked at the two most popular vaccine formulations in Canada – Trivalent inactive vaccine for adults and live-attenuated influenza vaccine for children. They found that both vaccines provided significant protection against matched (ranging from 65 per cent to 83 per cent effectiveness) and mismatched (ranging from 52 per cent to 54 per cent effectiveness) flu strains.

-----

No comments:

Post a Comment