Twice a year a global vaccine committee comes together to discuss and prepare for flu season. Groups of people come from the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere to decide which strain of flu will be prominent during the winter season.
More than 100 national influenza centers submit their research of the flu to five World Health Organization Collaborating Centers. The organization then meets to recommend countries on which specific vaccine for the viruses then each country makes the decision on which viruses should be included in the influenza vaccine, according to CDC website.
In the meetings, the United States developed a vaccine that incorporated three strains, according to Dr. Glenn Solomon, professor and chair of the Department of Internal Medicine at the Boonshoft School of Medicine.
“They actually picked the correct strains within the vaccine,” he said. “The way we make vaccines can cause changes in the strain and there was to the H3N2. When put with eggs there is a combination of things change. That made the vaccine not as effective.”
It takes six months to produce the influenza vaccine and have it ready by fall. Solomon believes that everyone should get the flu shot, according to the CDC.
“The use of vaccination reduces the flu by at least 50 percent. Everybody should get a vaccine because even when it doesn’t work great, it’s still a preventative,” Solomon said.
The number of flu related hospitalizations is now at 60 people out of 100,000, according to a CNN article about the flu report.
“We recommend people to get the flu shot in October. This being a particularly bad flu year, people can still get prevention with a vaccine,” Solomon said.
Solomon said that he too gets the flu shot every year and takes other precautions in preventing the flu.
“This is the worse flu season in ten years and people should be mindful about hand washing and getting a flu shot,” Solomon said.
