By Sue Mueller SATURDAY May 11, 2008 (foodconsumer.org) -- A new survey by Harris Interactive confirmed an early finding by the centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) that the vaccine used to prevent the flu this past winter was less...

May 11, 2008

Washington (dbTechno) - Flu vaccine manufacturers are hard at work on next season’s flu vaccine. Manufacturers are expected to produce a record number of doses of the flu vaccine to try and prevent a bad season such as the one we just went through.

There are five companies in the U.S. who are hard at work on making flu vaccines.

The expectation is that they plan to make at least 143 million doses for U.S. market alone next season.

This compares to the 120 million doses that were made for this season.

This past flu season was the worst in years due to the fact that the flu vaccine did not help protect from many of the strains of influenza, causing adults to die from the flu and pneumonia.

Last year’s flu vaccine, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was just 44% effective.

This season should be different though and with a record number of doses, the hope is that it will be less severe.

Source: dBTechno