On the 27th of September 2018, the WHO recommended the composition of influenza virus vaccines for use in Australia and the entire Southern Hemisphere 2019 flu vaccination season.

It is recommended that Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccines (four strains) contain two the below strains. There are two changes from the 2018 influenza season:

• an A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus;
• an A/Switzerland/8060/2017 (H3N2)-like virus;
• a B/Colorado/06/2017-like virus (B/Victoria/2/87 lineage); and
• a B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus (B/Yamagata/16/88 lineage).

The Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) is yet to release what their flu vaccine recommendation would be for the 2019 influenza season.

More to come...

In line with the latest research, Corporate Care will only use Quadrivalent flu vaccines in 2019.