With reporting by Martin Enserink .
While world attention focuses on the new H1N1 virus causing the swine flu pandemic, H3N2, seasonal flu strain has emerged in many countries of Asia is outstanding and some variants can outfox the seasonal vaccine in use. "We saw that the H3N2 virus were wide enough circulation in some countries there," Keiji Fukuda, special adviser on pandemic Director General of the World Health Organization, said at a conference press today.
The H3N2 strain is one of three in vaccines against seasonal influenza. But if the H3N2 strain in circulation is significantly different from that used to make the vaccine, the vaccine may offer less protection and more people become ill than usual. "For the current H3N2, we do not have such studies, so I can not tell you right now the extent the current seasonal flu vaccine protects against the H3N2 virus," said Fukuda.
However, some early China indicators suggest that the main circulating H3N2 there may be a lag with the vaccine strain. the H3N2 used in the seasonal vaccine is called subtype Brisbane. Shu Yuelong, director of the National Center Chinese flu in Beijing, said Science Insider in an email that, according to recent isolates their studies there, the "majority of the H3N2 virus is the virus of Perth-like." Shu noted that the Centre has no data to estimate the effectiveness of the seasonal vaccine against this subtype.
new H1N1 virus accounts for over 99% of subtyped isolates from August 30 in the US, Nancy Cox, chief of the influenza division at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said science Insider in an email there 10 days. But she said that 17% of the H3N2 subtype that they were Perth-like.
generally moves H3N2 from East Asia to Europe and the United States, but Shu said it is too early to know whether the Perth-like subtype outstanding will significant inroads in the West or reduce the effectiveness of the seasonal vaccine. "Personally, I think it is too simple to [draw] this conclusion," warned Shu. "We need more data."
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