The flu vaccine for the 2010/2011 winter season in the northern hemisphere is expected to contain three strains of influenza, including A(H1N1), commonly known as swine flu, the World Health Organization said Thursday.
The other two strains would be the H3N2 - which is also from the A family of influenza - and the B virus, Keiji Fukuda of the WHO announced after a four-day meeting of experts.
H1N1 “will continue to be a dominant virus and in wide circulation in the coming winter in the north hemisphere,” Fukuda told reporters.
Stockpiled vaccines of the pandemic H1N1 can be used by pharmaceuticals in the seasonal shot.
Last July, the WHO declared the new strain of H1N1 to be a pandemic. Fukuda said that a committee would meet February 23 to decide if the world had entered a “post-peak period.” However, the WHO official insisted that the pandemic is not yet over, and that increased activity was being seen in some parts of the world, particularly Western Africa.
