Universal flu vaccines
A "universal vaccine" that would not have to be designed and made for each flu season in each hemisphere would stabilize the supply, avoid error in predicting the seasons variants, and protect against escape of the circulating strains by mutation. Such a vaccine has been the subject of research for decades.One approach is to use broadly neutralizing antibodies that, unlike the annual seasonal vaccines used over the first decades of the 21st century that provoke the body to generate an immune response, instead provide a component of the immune response itself. The first neutralizing antibodies were identified in 1993, via experimentation. It was found that the flu neutralizing antibodies bound to the stalk of the Hemagglutinin protein. Antibodies that could bind to the head of those proteins were identified.
Influenza vaccines, also known as flu shots, are vaccines that protect against infection by influenza viruses. New versions of the vaccines are developed twice a year, as the influenza virus rapidly changes. While their effectiveness varies from year to year, most provide modest to high protection against influenza. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that vaccination against influenza reduces sickness, medical visits, hospitalizations, and deaths. Immunized workers who do catch the flu return to work half a day sooner on average. Vaccine effectiveness in those over 65 years old remains uncertain due to a lack of high-quality research. Vaccinating children may protect those around them.Vaccination against influenza began in the 1930s, with large-scale availability in the United States beginning in 1945. It is on the World Health Organizations List of Essential Medicines.The World Health Organization (WHO) and the CDC recommend yearly vaccination for nearly all people over the age of six months, especially those at high risk. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) also recommends yearly vaccination of high risk groups. These groups include pregnant women, the elderly, children between six months and five years of age, and those with certain health problems.The vaccines are generally safe; fever occurs in five to ten percent of children vaccinated, and temporary muscle pains or feelings of tiredness may occur. In certain years, the vaccine was linked to an increase in Guillain–Barré syndrome among older people at a rate of about one case per million doses.