Influenza Vaccine

FDA Issues 2018-2019 Flu Vaccine Recommendations

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) advisory committee has recommended the inclusion of several strains of influenza virus for the 2018-2019 influenza vaccine.

The FDA’s recommendations were released about a week after the World Health Organization (WHO) released its own recommendations. The FDA and WHO recommendations for next year’s influenza vaccine are the same.

The recommended strains include:

  • an A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus
  • an A/Singapore/INFIMH-16-0019/2016 (H3N2)-like virus
  • a B/Colorado/06/2017-like virus (B/Victoria/2/87 lineage)
  • a B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus (B/Yamagata/16/88 lineage)

Click here for our coverage of WHO’s recommendations for the components of the 2018-2019 influenza vaccine.

—Christina Vogt

Reference:

March 1, 2018: vaccines and related biological products advisory committee meeting announcement. US Food and Drug Administration. March 1, 2018. https://www.fda.gov/AdvisoryCommittees/Calendar/ucm596503.htm. Accessed on March 2, 2018.