The CDC reports the current influenza vaccine is well equipped to handle detected strains.
From late May through late June, influenza B viruses were predominant, whereas influenza A viruses were more common beginning in July, Lenee Blanton, MPH, from the Influenza Division, National Center for Immunization and Respiratory Diseases, CDC, Atlanta, Georgia, and colleagues write. They published their findings in the October 6 issue of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
“The majority of the influenza viruses collected from the United States and other countries during that time were characterized antigenically and genetically as being similar to the cell-grown reference viruses representing the 2017 Southern Hemisphere and 2017–18 Northern Hemisphere influenza vaccine viruses,” the researchers explain.
