Newer strains of mutated flu viruses may now cause a stir in the medical community as vaccinations from covering the 2014-2015 flu season did nothing much to protect people from getting sick.
In a disturbing turnout of the last flu season, the vaccinations only served to protect not more than 10 percent of the entire population who were administered with the vaccines in Canada, and worse, some of those may have even increased the risk of getting sick.
This, after data received from the Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network were able to compile their lab-confirmed influenza cases together with all pertinent information on patients who were immunized and track development of any or all symptoms related to flu.
The data analyzed were collected from hundreds of family physicians in Alberta, British Columbia, Ontario and Quebec.
According to Dr. Danuta Skowronski, an influenza expert from the BC Center for Disease Control, said that last year’s results was the lowest turnout on effectiveness of the flu vaccine that have been recorded for the last 10 years since pioneering the annual vaccine effectiveness estimates.
The low turnout resulted to one of the most severe influenza epidemics with a surprising number of outbreaks and hospital admissions in health care facilities, mostly with seniors, according to health authorities.
The 2014-2015 flu season started earlier than usual and the vaccines that were administered were designed to prevent infection with using two influenza A strains – the H1N1 and the H3N2- and B strains, as suggested by the World Health Organization.
However, researchers stated that by the time the vaccine was produced and ready for inoculation at the start of fall 2014, a genetically mutated H3N2 virus began to circulate and protection against the strain was not present in the vaccines administered.
“It was a standout season for us, “ said Dr. Skowronski, stating that although this is a controversial find, they still are hoping to address this problem with the coming flu season and provide better and extensive flu protection.
Dr. Skowronski added that H3N2 was responsible for about 90 percent of the death toll, especially among the elderly and researchers discovered that people vaccinated in previous years with the existing vaccine formula had higher risks of contracting it than those who did not get the shot during the last flu season.
The post Mutated Flu Strain Caused Low Immunity Turnout appeared first on NUTRITION CLUB CANADA.
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