"Flu Vaccine Effective Against 4 Strains, Study Finds"

A News & Events entry posted on October 23, 2012

"Flu Vaccine Effective Against 4 Strains, Study Finds" New York Times (October 22, 2012) - "Vaccines that protect against four strains of flu proved just as effective in clinical trials as traditional ones that protect against three, two vaccine companies announced Monday. The new mixtures protect against two different B strains, scientists from Sanofi Pasteur and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals said at a medical meeting in San Diego. The B strains are rarer and usually arrive later in the season than the A strains, like A(H1N1), but they cause more hospitalizations and deaths. Until 1978, flu vaccines contained only one A and one B strain; a second A was added to fight A(H3N2), which had first emerged as the 1968 Hong Kong Flu."
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/23/health/flu-vaccine-effective-against-4-strains-study-finds.html?_r=0