Standard Mischief

Magic incantation follows: Not a doctor, not your doctor, not dispensing medical advice. Before the use of any medical information that I’ve aggregated on my site, you agree to review that information with a real doctor before acting on that information. (end incantation)

It looks like the FDA is adding protection against H1N1 in the 2010-2011 seasonal flu vaccine.

Every year, there’s a new crapshoot to guess which influenza strains are going to be “popular” during this year’s season. Then they try to pick three or so viruses to make the vaccine from. While the influenza virus mutates rapidly, there is some cross immunization between strains, at least in theory.

Can the seasonal flu vaccine provide protection against other seasonal flu viruses even if the vaccine is not a “good” match?

Yes, antibodies made in response to vaccination with one flu virus can provide protection against related viruses. Vaccine effectiveness may be lower than if the vaccine and circulating strains are most alike but the vaccine can still provide enough protection to prevent or lessen illness severity and prevent flu-related complications. (However, a flu vaccine is not expected to offer cross-protection against viruses that are very different genetically from those in the vaccine.)…

This year they picked:
A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)–like virus
A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)–like virus
B/Brisbane/60/2008–like virus.

The vaccine for the 2009-2010 seasonal influenza contained:
A/Brisbane/59/2007 (H1N1)-like virus
A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2)-like virus
B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus

According to Wikipedia, The H1N1 strain in this years’ batch is the same as in last year’s special vaccine that was oh-so-effectively metered out by the precursor to Obamacare.

I suppose that means that if you did get the special H1N1 vaccine and the standard vaccine last year, you’re only going to grow antibodies from one new strain. If you are like me, and didn’t get the special vaccine, but did get the regular one, you should be building immunity from two new strains.