Report: Flu vaccine effective for 2022/2023 season

During the 2022 to 2023 influenza season, vaccination is effective for reducing the risk for medically attended influenza among children and adults aged younger than 65 years and for symptomatic influenza among children, according to research published in the Feb. 24 issue of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

Huong Q. McLean, Ph.D., from the Marshfield Clinic Research Institute in Wisconsin, and colleagues used data from two concurrent studies conducted in Wisconsin during Oct. 23, 2022, to Feb. 10, 2023, to estimate influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE).

The researchers found that among patients aged 6 months to 64 years, VE was 54 percent against medically attended outpatient acute respiratory illness associated with influenza A. VE was 71 percent against symptomatic influenza A virus infection in a community cohort of children aged younger than 18 years.

“During the 2022-23 season to date, influenza A viruses that predominated are genetically and antigenically similar to current vaccine components,” the authors write. “Influenza vaccination is recommended for all persons aged ≥6 months for as long as influenza viruses are circulating in the community.”

Several authors disclosed financial ties to the biopharmaceutical industry.

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