Last year’s flu vaccine administered in the U.K. was not a success, although the final figure of a one-third success rate was better than the vaccine’s performance during the initial stages. Early on, the vaccine was addressing the virus only three out of every 100 immunized people, with the majority going onto to develop symptoms. These trends are based on data supplied by the U.K. government health agency Public Health England. An acceptable rate, the BBC Health reports, is 50 percent.
The reason for the lack of success is based on difficulties in 2013 in predicting how the major type of influenza virus strain would mutate (flu viruses continually mutate, which is why developing vaccines is so problematic.) The U.K. choice was based on information provided by the World Health Organization (WHO.) For the 2014-2015 season, the primary strain of concern was H3N2.
With any vaccine news story, it is important to point out that vaccines carry risks and not all medical and healthcare professionals are advocates of vaccination.
In related news, scientists have published reportedly successful data relating to a ‘universal’ flu vaccine. Trials using animals have recently been reported.
