Pressroom
This Flu Season's Goal Is More Shots, Sooner
Source: Wall Street Journal
By: McKay, Betsy
08/25/2010
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that all people aged six months and up receive the seasonal flu vaccine, which this year will include H1N1, H3N2, and an influenza B strain. Those who were vaccinated against H1N1 last year are encouraged to be immunized again this year. The lengthy manufacturing process for the H1N1 vaccine distributed in 2009 meant doses were available only after the number of cases peaked, so the CDC is pushing the development of new tools to quicken the process. In addition to optimizing seed strains used to create vaccines, researchers are looking at new ways to figure out the amount of antigen in a vaccine vial. The number of doses of flu vaccine to be manufactured this year will range from 160 million to 165 million.
