The Evolving History of Influenza Viruses and Influenza Vaccines

Claude Hannoun

Expert Rev Vaccines. 2013;12(9):1085-1094.

Five-year View

Over the next 5 years, the quadrivalent inactivated influenza vaccine will become more widely used. Advances in the search for a universal vaccine, targeting a common antigen that is not subject to genetic modifications, may modify our approach to vaccination against influenza. In the meantime, improved influenza surveillance systems and models for predicting which influenza strains are most likely to circulate need to be developed.

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Acknowledgments
The author would like to thank Sandrine Samson (Sanofi Pasteur MSD) for her critical review and useful suggestions. As well as Sanofi Pasteur MSD for providing funding to write this manuscript and Margaret Haugh (MediCom Consult) for translation and editing services.

Financial & competing interests disclosure
Funding was provided by Sanofi Pasteur MSD. The author has no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.
Margaret Haugh (MediCom Consult) provided translation and editing services, which was funded by Sanofi Pasteur MSD.

Table 1. Examples of mismatch between influenza vaccine B strain and circulating B strain.
Country	Year	Circulating influenza B strain	Vaccine strain	Mismatch (%)
Philippines and Thailand [33]	2002	96% VIC	YM	96
Australia [37]	2004	100% YM	VIC	100
Italy [39]	2004–2005	83% VIC	YM	83
New Zealand [35]	2005	82% VIC	YM	82
Myanmar [34]	2005	85% VIC	YM	85
Europe [29]	2005–2006	90% VIC	YM	90
Czech Rep [32]	2005–2006	92% VIC	YM	92
Hong Kong [38]	2005–2006	100% VIC	YM	100
Australia [36]	2007	76% YM	VIC	76

Box 1. Current nomenclature for influenza viruses (WHO 1980).
The formal nomenclature for the designation of influenza viruses was revised and published by the WHO [43]. The full and correct nomenclature includes: The type of virus (A, B or C); The host of origin (except for human); The geographic site of isolation: The strain number; The year of isolation (four-digit year for viruses isolated in 2000 or later; two-digit year for viruses isolated during the 1900s); The subtype [16 possible hemagglutinin and 9 possible neuraminidase subtypes]. Thus, a type A virus isolated in 1995 in Memphis Tennessee with a strain number of 123 and an H5N1 subtype is designated: Influenza A//Memphis/123/95 (H5N1)