GENEVA, Feb 18 (Reuters) - Vaccine experts recommended onFeb. 18that the coming year's seasonal flu vaccine in the northern hemisphere contain three strains, including the pandemic H1N1 virus, officials said.
The composition of the vaccine, announced by the World Health Organisation after a closed-door four-day meeting of influenza experts means governments that have stockpiled doses of H1N1 swine flu vaccine may now use them for part of the seasonal flu vaccine mix.
"If they have the vaccine strain which is already made up and can be used, then they’re ahead of the game," Keiji Fukuda, the WHO’s top influenza expert, told Reuters after a public WHO session attended by representatives of pharmaceutical companies.
The other strains are H3N2 and B influenza.
Fukuda said national health regulatory authorities would have decide whether to combine the three strains into a single "trivalent" shot, administer three separate vaccines, or use a separate H1N1 shot and combine the other two in one shot.
Flu vaccine makers such as GlaxoSmithKline and Sanofi-Aventis need the guidance to start formulating vaccines for the northern hemisphere’s 2010/11 vaccine mix.
The decision was more complicated this year because of the pandemic, declared by the WHO last June.
That raised the question of whether to replace the current H1N1 seasonal strain with the pandemic strain — also known as California 7 — which is now circulating more widely.
The composition of the southern hemisphere’s separate seasonal vaccine for 2010 was announced last September and also contains the H1N1 pandemic strain. .
