Flu vaccine less effective, protects fewer students

The nearly 3,000 students who were vaccinated against influenza by the University this year may be less protected than they thought, since this year’s nationally distributed flu vaccine is unusually ineffective at protecting against the most common flu viruses.

 

According to the Centers for Disease Control (CDC), the vaccine can only fend off 40 percent of this year’s flu bugs, compared to 70 to 90 percent in most years.

 

The reason for the vaccine’s relative inefficacy is that its composition is a poor match for the viruses that are prevalent this year, CDC Chief of Influenza Epidemiology Joe Bresee said in a teleconference available on the CDC website.

 

There has been an “increase in flu activity on campus but not at an unusual level,” UHS Director of Medical Services Peter Johnsen said. “We’ve seen about two dozen [cases] so far this year, comparable to … last year.” But some of these students caught the flu despite having been vaccinated, he said.

 

Both Johnsen and Anna Bialek ’09, former chair of the Student Health Advisory Board, stressed that students should not be deterred from getting flu vaccines in the future.

 

“Each year’s vaccine is slightly different, and they all help to protect against the flu, even if some may be slightly better than others in certain respects,” Bialek said in an e-mail. In the past, campus-wide participation in FluFest, the University’s annual flu shot-distribution event, has had a “very impressive” effect on the number of flu cases, she noted.

 

Each year, experts try to predict which strains of flu will be the most common the following winter, Bresee said. Three strains are chosen and used nationwide in vaccines. In 16 of the past 19 years, the matches have been good, he said. In these years, the vaccine protected against the most common strains of the virus.

 

But this year, a strain called H3N2 has been unexpectedly prevalent, and the vaccine does not protect well against it. So far, though, there hasn’t been an alarming increase in flu fatalities nationwide, Bresee said.

 

Students did not anticipate changing their behavior in response to this news.

 

“I normally don’t get vaccinated, and I probably won’t in the future,” Jason Yang ’09 said.

 

Julianne Grasso ’10, on the other hand, gets vaccinated annually and plans to in the future, she said. “This doesn’t really change anything — I try to stay as healthy as possible,” Grasso explained. “I’m just glad I don’t have the flu right now.”

 

“Getting a flu shot and taking medicine to treat symptoms do a lot to prevent getting the flu,” Bialek said. But students are still vulnerable to the flu and other diseases “when our immune systems are compromised because of stress, sleep deprivation, and unhealthy eating habits.”

 

Johnsen stressed frequent hand washing and avoiding contact with sick individuals. Johnson also agreed that getting enough sleep is “important in maintaining the immune system.”