New recipe 

   2008/2009

    Flu Shots

The FDA has unamiously backed the recommendation of the World health Organization to change all three (3) strains for the 2008/2009 influenza season.  This highly unusual move creates a tremendous challenge for all the flu vaccine manufacturers, which could result in significant production delays affecting product delivery this year.  The new strains will include:

A/Brisbane/59/2007 (H1N1) - like virus

A Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2) - like virus

B/Florida/4/2006 - like virus

Flu Expectations for Next Year

 "Last month the nation's flu experts convened to determine the formulation for the Fall 2008 flu vaccine, (as stated above) which will be entirely different from the current vacine.  It's always important to get our flu vaccines, but in the coming season it will be hugely important to do so, as we will be faced with yet more new flu viruses that will make their way through the population."  said Dr. Schaffner, MD professor of medicine in the division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine.

Warnings added to Flu drug Relenza

...."GlaxoSmithKline has added warnings of reported psychiatric problems to the label for its flu drug Relenza.  The new language lists seizures, hallucinations and delirium.  Most problems occurred in Japanese children who took the drug.  Japan is the largest market in the world for flu medications because doctors there  prescribe drugs such as Relenza as a standard treatment for flu symptoms.  Swiss drugmaker Roche made simiar changes to the label for its drug Tamiflu last month.  Tamiflu was the top selline flu medication worldwide last year with sales of $2.4 billion.  Relenza had sales of $520 million."

(Source USA Today April 3, 2008)