WHO recommendations - northern hemisphere influenza vaccines 2018-2019

On 22 February 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) published recommendations on the composition of the trivalent and quadrivalent vaccines for the 2017-2018 northern hemisphere influenza season. The WHO recommends that quadrivalent influenza vaccines should contain the following:

• an A/Michigan/45/2015 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus
• an A/Singapore/INFIMH-16-0019/2016 (H3N2)-like virus
• a B/Colorado/06/2017-like virus (B/Victoria/2/87 lineage)
• a B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus (B/Yamagata/16/88 lineage)

The WHO has also recommended that the influenza B virus component of trivalent vaccines for use in the 2018-2019 northern hemisphere influenza season be a B/Colorado/06/2017-like virus of the B/ Victoria/2/87-lineage. As in previous years, national or regional authorities approve the composition and formulation of vaccines used in each country and will be responsible for making recommendations regarding the use of the vaccine.

The WHO have published their recommendations and further commentary has been published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).