Flu season: Here’s hoping this year’s vaccine works better

To say last year’s flu shot was a dud would be an understatement.

When a mutated H3N2 virus appeared last September — too late to be included in last year’s vaccine — the amount of protection provided by the flu shot dropped dramatically.

And doctor’s offices across North Texas and beyond were flooded with patients miserable with the flu.

“It was an off year,” said Russ Jones, chief epidemiologist for Tarrant County Public Health. “Unfortunately that doesn’t much promote faith in the shots, but last year was the exception not the rule.”

Dr. Tom Frieden, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said last year’s vaccine was only 13 percent effective against the mutated version that caused most of last year’s cases.

While it’s too early to tell what kind of flu season this will be — each season charts its own course — officials are hopeful this year’s shot will be more effective. Typically, flu vaccine is 50 percent to 60 percent effective.

Since H3N2 was the dominant strain last year, Jones said an H1N1 virus is more likely to circulate this year, though there are no guarantees.

To better fight off the various flu strains, some health officials suggest that patients should try and get the quadrivalent vaccine rather than the trivalent.

“The quadrivalent protects against two A and two B strains,” said Jan Jowitt, chief nursing and infection control officer at the UNT Health Science Center in Fort Worth. “That’s the one you want.”

If there’s any doubt about which one you’re getting, Jowitt has a suggestion.

“Just ask,” Jowitt said. “The pharmacists will let you know.”

It usually takes about two weeks for the vaccine to kick in.

Vaccines still being shipped

While the flu season is still in its early stage, not every location has quadrivalent on hand. That should change in the coming weeks as more shipments of the vaccine arrive.

About 171 million doses of flu vaccine are expected to be produced this year.

Raja Avanadula, a pharmacist at Hall’s Pharmacy in Fort Worth, said he only has the trivalent in stock. Besides dispensing shots at the pharmacy, Hall’s also provides flu shots for businesses and churches across Tarrant County.

“We have to special order quadrivalent and currently there a none available from the wholesaler,” Avanadula said.

Besides shots, the vaccine can also be taken by nasal spray.

Tough year for the elderly

During last year’s flu season, there were 17 pediatric deaths in Texas. In the U.S., there were 145 pediatric deaths reported in 2014, compared with 96 the previous year. But Frieden said the number is probably much larger since flu deaths often go unreported.

No statistics are kept on adult deaths, said Chris Van Deusen, a spokesman for the Texas Department of State Health Services. But about 24,000 people die annually in the United States from the flu, according to the CDC.

The flu hit the elderly hard in 2014, with the highest number of cases since the CDC began counting a decade ago.

Seniors over the age of 65 made up 61 percent of reported influenza hospitalizations last year, or about 322 cases per every 100,000 seniors, the CDC said. In the previous flu season, there were about 88 cases per every 100,000 seniors.

This report includes material from The Associated Press.

This story was originally published September 18, 2015 at 2:52 PM with the headline "Flu season: Here’s hoping this year’s vaccine works better."