Study: Seasonal flu shots provide protection beyond strains included in the vaccine

WASHINGTON — Seasonal flu vaccines may protect individuals not only against the strains of flu they contain, but also against many additional types, according to a study published this week in mBio, the online open-access journal of the American Society for Microbiology. 

 

The work, directed by researchers at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital in Memphis, Tenn., found that some study participants who reported receiving flu vaccines had a strong immune response not only against the seasonal H3N2 flu strain from 2010, when blood samples were collected for analysis, but also against flu subtypes never included in any vaccine formulation.

 

The finding is exciting "because it suggests that the seasonal flu vaccine boosts antibody responses and may provide some measure of protection against a new pandemic strain that could emerge from the avian population," said senior study author Paul Thomas, an associate member in the department of immunology at St. Jude. "There might be a broader extent of reactions than we expected in the normal human population to some of these rare viral variants."