FDA and CDC to determine flu vaccine for next season

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Experts from the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will meet Tuesday to discuss flu strains to be included in the vaccine for the 2001-2002 influenza season.

On the agenda for the annual meeting, surveillance of this year's flu outbreaks in the United States and around the world, characterization of the strains of the virus, and an evaluation of how well this year's vaccine is working.

After comment from vaccine makers and members of the public, the experts are expected to decide late Tuesday what strains next year's vaccine should contain.

If all three strains to be contained in next year's vaccine are not decided Tuesday, the experts will meet again in March. In the meantime, manufacturers will start developing a flu vaccine from the known strain or strains, which change every year.

This year, the vaccine was in short supply until recently because one strain of the flu grew slowly and because the FDA shut one of the vaccine makers, Parkdale Pharmaceutical, for safety reasons.

If the current flu season had peaked in December, as had been predicted, there could have been a high rate of illnesses and deaths associated with the flu this year. But the season has not yet peaked and the vaccine supply is plentiful.

People who have not yet gotten vaccinated are urged to do so, since incidence of the illness can peak as late as March.

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CDC - Flu Season 2000-2001
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