WHO: ‘The US has not sent data to seasonal flu since January’

Dr. Wenqing Zhang, head of the WHO global influenza program, announced this in an online conference on February 20. The information of the influenza virus is very important, in order to monitor global diseases and determine the virus strain. This also contributes to updating the seasonal flu vaccine.

The Center for Control and Prevention of American epidemics (CDC) and the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) often participate in global discussions organized by WHO on influenza vaccine twice a year. The WHO meeting is scheduled to take place next week in London to discuss the composition of the flu vaccine. So far, WHO said that the US has not confirmed it will attend.

“Since January 20, CDC has not reported to the Flunet and Fluid platform of WHO,” Dr. Zhang said, referring to the two influenza surveillance databases. As of last week, the United States published some information about flu nationwide.

At the next week’s meeting, the parties participated in the data review to come to the conclusion of the question “Seasonal influenza vaccine is still effective or need to update?”.

Kanta Subbarao, a pediatric infusion expert and influenza scientist at Laval University, Quebec City, said that the US plays a role in expert contributions to the effectiveness of the vaccine and important materials. use. Ms. Subbarao used to be the director of WHO influenza cooperation center in Melbourne, Australia.

“I think this year’s influenza vaccine will face many obstacles.

The US Center for Cooperation often receives influenza viruses from Canada, Europe, America and part of Asia. Dr. Keiji Fukuda, doctor and epidemiologist from WHO and CDC, said the role of American experts is very important. According to him, their opinions can cause experts in member states to change the way of viewing about the problem. The exchange of multilateral knowledge helps to provide the best formula for the vaccine.

Angela Rasmussen, a virus, the main researcher at the vaccine and infectious disease in Saskatoon, said it needs US experts to accurately predict the influenza strain that will circulate in Canada, the United States and Mexico.

“Because the US has a large geographical area and a large population, they can easily know the influenza strain is dominating. This helps us to win the race with the virus,” she said.

The WHO influenza surveillance program includes 130 member countries. On February 14, CDC published weekly information about seasonal flu, and updated with cases of H5N1 avian influenza infected with nearly 70 people in the US, in which a death case. Most of the infections are in people working in the farm, in contact with poultry or infected cows.

Doctors and scientists are closely monitoring, see if H5N1 or another flu virus can easily spread from person to person. This is the reason for the previous influenza pandemic.

WHO said that the meeting about the flu vaccine will continue to be on the right day, whether the US delegate appears or not.