luiscar/iStock/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — This season’s flu vaccine may be even less effective than initially thought.
HealthDay News reports that the vaccine is just 18 percent effective against the dominant H3N2 flu strain, down from 23 percent initially estimated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Even worse, according to the CDC, the vaccine may be just 15 percent effective in children between the ages of 2 and 8.
Still, the vaccine “does prevent lots of hospitalizations and deaths,” Dr. William Schaffner, former president of the National Foundation for Infectious Disease told ABC News. “We need to do the best we can with the vaccine we have at hand.”
Schaffner did say that the flu appears to be abating in all sections of the United States.
As far as the disappointingly ineffective vaccine, Schaffner said that it was “the worst year for the effectiveness of flu vaccine in decades. It will be better next year,” he predicted.
Children tend to get more viral illnesses than adults, Dr. Besser said, because they’re in physical contact with each other and don’t have years of flu exposure built up.
The CDC also reports that the nasal-spray version of the vaccine, which was “recommended especially for young children,” Dr. Besser said, “is shown to not be effective at all.”
“It’s not exactly clear if it had something to do with the mutated strain,” he said. “What it led to this week is the CDC voted that next year they will not recommend the nasal spray.”
It may be the end of February, but we’re still not out of the woods for flu season.
“Flu season is winding down,” Dr. Besser said, but “there is still flu activity around the country.”
“We encourage people who are sick to stay home from school and work, and cover their coughs and sneezes,” he added.
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