Flu vaccine for fall won't protect against swine virus

The Food and Drug Administration approved a seasonal flu vaccine on Monday, in plenty of time to protect people against the three standard flu strains expected to spread this fall.

The agency warned, though, that the seasonal vaccine will not guard against a fourth, potentially more dangerous, strain spreading worldwide. This virus, a novel H1N1 influenza widely known as swine flu, has caused more than 40,000 cases and 260 deaths in the USA and its territories.

Its novelty is what makes it so dangerous. Most people, particularly those younger than 50, haven't been exposed to the new virus or viruses like it, so they're relatively defenseless against infection. On June 11, the World Health Organizationissued its highest infectious-disease alert, declaring that a flu pandemic had begun.

The pandemic flu virus only compounds the already considerable threat posed by seasonal influenza, which results in about 200,000 hospitalizations and 36,000 deaths every year, says Anthony Fiore, a flu epidemiologist at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

"We know these (seasonal) viruses cause a lot of deaths in older people, people with chronic disease and little babies," he says. "It seems to us that the reasonable thing to do is go full speed ahead with seasonal flu vaccinations."

Originapo Post: usatoday.com