Category Archive

The U.S. Influenza Surveillance Report released last week confirmed a significant increase in seasonal influenza activity. This situation persists in all ten geographic regions.
To better visualize the impact of the ongoing 2024 flu season, Walgreens Flu Index's latest chart highlighted the top ten cities offering antiviral medications used to treat influenza across Walgreens locations nationwide. 
As of late February 2024, these are the leading markets:

Once thriving, the influenza vaccine business in the United States is on a dramatic downward trend. Only 157 million flu shots have been distributed so far during the 2023-2024 flu season.
This data indicates a 19% decrease for the 2020-2021 season when 194 million flu shots were distributed.
With the influenza vaccine's efficacy hovering around 50%, the protective benefits people receive cannot be the reason behind this sudden, negative trend.

It's important to remember that influenza vaccine protection starts very strong but declines throughout flu season as antibody levels wane.
A study published in Eurosurveillance on February 22, 2024, compiled data across nine flu seasons in Ontario, Canada, revealing that influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) waned about 9% every 28 days beginning 41 days post-vaccination.
This trend was detected in adults but not in children.

As a global leader in the protection of public health, CSL Seqirus announced today that it is working to change the formulation of its influenza vaccine portfolio.
On February 8, 2024, Seqirus confirmed the B/Yamagata influenza virus strain will be removed from its influenza vaccines distributed in the United States, preferably in time for the 2024-2025 flu season. 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that over 157 million influenza vaccines were already distributed during the 2023-2024 flu season. 

JAMA Medical News recently published a Perspective explaining how new phrases may apply to recent respiratory illnesses in children in various countries.
Published on January 10, 2024, Rita Rubin, MA, discussed the ongoing debate about how the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to increased rates of diseases such as influenza and respiratory syncytial virus.
Much of the discussion has centered around immunity debt and immunity theft, terms born of the pandemic and not found in textbooks.

Over the last few decades, research has proven that drug–drug interactions (DDIs) can cause adverse drug events, but little is known today about DDI exposure in children in the outpatient setting.
A new study published by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) on January 4, 2024, found that 21.7% of Medicaid-insured children were exposed to one major DDIs annually.
Of 781,019 children in this study, the odds of DDI exposure increased with age and with medical and mental health complexity.

A new study published today should help clarify an essential question for pregnant women considering getting an influenza vaccination during flu season, which generally begins in October each year in the United States.
An Original Investigation published by the journal JAMA Pediatrics on December 18, 2023, concluded that maternal vaccination was associated with reduced odds of influenza-associated hospitalizations and emergency department (ED) visits in infants younger than six months.

New real-world data focused on cell-based quadrivalent seasonal influenza vaccine (QIVc) was recently published in the journal Vaccines.
This CSL Seqirus-funded study evaluated data from 16 studies over four flu seasons and is the latest to underscore the measurable value of QIVc or the relative VE (rVE) for children compared to older egg-based QIV (QIVe) vaccines. 

New research highlights multiple detections of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) A(H5N1) virus Eurasian lineage H5 clade 2.3.4.4b in wild terrestrial mammals in the United States.
This finding, published by the U.S. CDC Emerging Infectious Diseases Volume 29, Number 12—December 2023, builds on previous reports of natural infections with HPAI virus in red foxes and adds to the global list of species susceptible to H5N1 HPAI virus.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) today published updated vaccination recommendations for ages 18 years or younger.
Published on November 17, 2023, the 2024 Immunization Schedule is effective immediately.
The CDC's Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has approved these vaccine recommendations by majority vote since October 26, 2023. 
The ACIP develops recommendations for U.S. immunizations, including ages when vaccines should be given, number of doses, time between doses, and precautions and contraindications.