What You Should Know for the 2016-2017 Influenza Season

Upcoming Flu Season

What is the recommended vaccine composition for the U.S. 2016-2017 influenza vaccines?

On March 4, 2016, the Food and Drug Administration's Vaccines and Related Biologics Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) endorsed the WHO-recommended vaccine viruses for use in all U.S. seasonal flu vaccines for the 2016-2017 flu season. It was recommended that trivalent vaccines for use in the 2016-2017 influenza season (Northern Hemisphere winter) contain the following:

an A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus;
an A/Hong Kong/4801/2014 (H3N2)-like virus;
a B/Brisbane/60/2008-like virus (B/Victoria lineage).

It was recommended that quadrivalent vaccines containing two influenza B viruses contain the above three viruses and a B/Phuket/3073/2013-like virus (B/Yamagata lineage).

The vaccine viruses recommended for inclusion in the 2016-2017 Northern Hemisphere influenza vaccines are the same vaccine viruses that were chosen for inclusion in 2016 Southern Hemisphere seasonal flu vaccines.

More information is available on the FDA VRBPAC web site and via FDA’s summary minutes[43 KB, 4 Pages] from the meeting.