Some people may already be surprised: from this season onwards, a triple vaccine is recommended for the flu vaccination instead of the previous four-dose vaccine. It provides protection against only three instead of four flu virus strains. This is not a savings measure, but is due to a marginal effect of the Corona measures.
“We have completely eradicated a flu strain,” says Carsten Watzl of TU Dortmund. “This clearly shows how effective the measures were.”
Triple vaccine again this year
Until 2018, a triple vaccine was standard. Since the 2018/2019 flu season, the Permanent Vaccination Committee (Stiko) in Germany has recommended a four-shot vaccine. Before the start of the season, the triple vaccine was again recommended as standard flu protection – without antigens against the B Yamagata flu strain.
Suddenly no more evidence
Already in 2020, experts had determined that this group of flu viruses was no longer circulating. B Yamagata did not appear again in the years that followed, says immunologist Watzl. According to an article in the journal ‘Lancet’, B Yamagata is the only virus that causes respiratory diseases that has become extinct during the course of the corona pandemic – although caution is still advised: not all corners of the world are properly monitored, B Yamagata may have it somewhere survived.
The World Health Organization (WHO) concluded in September 2023 that the B-Yamagata component is no longer necessary for vaccine protection. The so-called trivalent vaccine should now only contain antigens from one influenza B strain (B Victoria) and two influenza A strains. Different variants of these subtypes circulate worldwide, with varying degrees of intensity in each flu season.
Considerations for the coming season
Every February, the WHO considers how to design the vaccines for the coming season to provide the best possible protection. Because it is difficult to predict which strains will dominate, quadruple vaccination protection against two A and two B strains has been used for years. This increases the chance that the vaccine will be effective against the strains that are actually circulating.
The flu is a highly contagious infectious disease. The course is much more serious than ‘flu-like infections’, as colds caused by other pathogens are often called. Fatigue, high fever and a dry cough usually occur suddenly. In Germany, tens of thousands of people become ill from the flu in the winter months.
Multiple deaths every year
Flu viruses reduce the body’s defenses and predispose the body to life-threatening complications: According to the RKI, flu-related deaths are usually caused by bacterial pneumonia after the flu viruses have previously damaged the lungs. The number of deaths varies greatly from season to season: from several hundred to more than 25,000, just like in the 2017/2018 season.
Stiko recommends an annual vaccination in the autumn for people over 60 or if there is an increased health risk, for example as a result of an underlying disease. A vaccination does not provide 100% protection against disease, but it does provide milder symptoms. Antibiotics, on the other hand, are not effective against influenza, as with all diseases caused by viruses. However, they are used when complications caused by bacteria also occur.
Source: Krone
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