Influenza strains selected by the World Health Organization (WHO) for inclusion in the 2018-2019 Northern Hemisphere flu vaccines will differ from those included in the current season's products.
In on its site, the WHO recommended that next year's quadrivalent vaccines contain:
- A/Michigan (H1N1) pdm09-like virus
- A/Singapore H3N2-like virus
- B/Colorado-like virus (of the B/Victoria lineage)
- B/Phuket-like virus (of the B/Yamagata lineage)
This is a change in H3N2 from this year's A/Hong Kong, as WHO researchers noted the A/Singapore seemed to perform better than other egg-cultured H3N2 viruses. B/Colorado is another change from last year's B/Brisbane.
The FDA will make its for influenza strains for the U.S. flu vaccine on March 1.