Flu Vaccine Not Grown In Eggs

What Is The Significance Of Fda Approving Cell

Growing flu viruses in eggs can introduce changes that can cause differences between the viruses in the vaccine and the ones that are circulating. These changes may have important implications for the bodys immune response to vaccination. For example, egg-adapted changes could cause the bodys immune system to produce antibodies that are less effective at preventing disease caused by the specific flu viruses in circulation. FDAs approval of cell-based CVVs for use in cell-based flu vaccines could possibly improve the effectiveness of cell-based flu vaccines.

Can I Have The Flu Vaccine If I Take Immune Checkpoint Inhibitors

Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a type of medicine used to treat some cancers, including metastatic melanoma, renal clear cell carcinoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma, non-small cell lung cancer and other solid organ tumours. Checkpoint inhibitors include ipilimumab, nivolumab and pembrolizumab.

People taking checkpoint inhibitors may have a higher risk of immune-related side effects following influenza vaccination. Talk to your oncologist about the risks and benefits of the flu shot.

Quadrivalent Vaccines For Seasonal Flu

A quadrivalent flu vaccine administered by nasal mist was approved by the FDA in March 2012. Fluarix Quadrivalent was approved by the FDA in December 2012.

In 2014, the Canadian National Advisory Committee on Immunization published a review of quadrivalent influenza vaccines.

Starting with the 2018-2019 influenza season most of the regular-dose egg-based flu shots and all the recombinant and cell-grown flu vaccines in the United States are quadrivalent. In the 2019â2020 influenza season all regular-dose flu shots and all recombinant influenza vaccine in the United States are quadrivalent.

In November 2019, the FDA approved Fluzone High-Dose Quadrivalent for use in the United States starting with the 2020-2021 influenza season.

In February 2020, the FDA approved Fluad Quadrivalent for use in the United States. In July 2020, the FDA approved both Fluad and Fluad Quadrivalent for use in the United States for the 2020â2021 influenza season.

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Why The Egg Method Won’t Work For A Coronavirus Vaccine

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Is The Flu Vaccine Safe For People With Egg Allergy

Yes. If you have a current or past egg allergy, you can get the flu vaccine, even if you have had severe allergic reactions to egg. The same is true for children.

The following organizations recommend getting the flu shot every year, even if you have an egg allergy:

• Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America
• Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
• American Academy of Pediatrics
• American Academy of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology
• American College of Allergy, Asthma, and Immunology

You can get any flu vaccine, even if you have a history of mild or severe egg allergy. You can get the shot or nasal spray. You no longer need to be observed in a doctors office for 30 minutes after getting the vaccine if you have or had an egg allergy.

AAFA recommends the following:

• Ages 6 months to 4 years should get the flu shot.
• Ages 4 and older: If your asthma is under control with no symptoms, you can get the flu shot or the nasal spray vaccine.
• Ages 4 and older: If you have recent asthma episodes or wheezing, get the flu shot.

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Can You Catch Bird Flu

This has been a big problem for a while but it becomes a particular problem over the past few years, Hensley said. H3N2 grows very poorly in eggs.

To make a flu vaccine, producers inject a seed virus strain into eggs and then incubate them as the virus grows. Then they purify the virus, and either weaken it or kill it to make a vaccine.

There are many different production methods and more than a half-dozen different flu vaccines on the market as a result. Only two on the U.S. market are not made in eggs: Flucelvax, which is grown in canine kidney cells, and FluBlok, which uses an insect virus called a baculovirus grown in caterpillar cells.

Hensley and colleagues identified several mutations that occur when the viruses are made in eggs, and report in Mondays issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences that these mutations help make the flu vaccine perform poorly last year.

This is a mutation that has never been seen before, Hensley said.

Most flu vaccines contain a piece of the flu virus and almost all of them aim at a structure called hemagglutinin, which helps flu viruses attach to the cells they infect.

This one makes the virus grow a big sugar compound on top of hemagglutinin, Hensley said. It stops the bodys immune virus from responding to the vaccine.

“It’s much better to get the vaccine than not to get the vaccine,” Fauci said.

But the mutation may explain why Australia just had a particularly bad flu season, Hensley added.

If Youve Had A Severe Allergic Reaction To The Flu Vaccine

You should not get a flu shot if the flu vaccine itself ever caused you to have a severe, life-threatening allergic reaction called anaphylaxis, says Dr. Gordon. Again, this can happen whether you have an allergy to eggs or not.

Because anaphylaxis progresses quickly and can be fatal, the risk of a repeat episode from getting the vaccine far outweighs your risk of getting the flu.

Its important to understand the risks that come with any vaccine, but you can rest easy knowing that just 1.35 out of one million people have experienced one of these severe allergic reactions to the flu vaccine.

The other piece of good news is that among this small population, the anaphylaxis was most often triggered by an allergy to one of the other vaccine components, not to the egg.

The bottom line is, there is no reason for someone with a suspected egg allergy to not get the flu vaccine, says Dr. Lang.

The best thing you can do to put yourself in a safe situation is to inform the medical professional administering your flu shot of your allergies ahead of time.

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Busting Myths Around The Flu Shot

Professor Carroll said it was not possible to contract the flu from an influenza vaccination.

“No-one can get influenza from the flu vaccination because the vaccination does not contain the whole virus, it contains just sub-sections of it,” he said.

“It does take about 10 to 14 days to work, before our immune system reacts to the vaccine and makes the antibodies and becomes competent to take out the virus if we meet it.

“If you become infected with the influenza virus perhaps the day before the vaccine, or the day of the vaccine, or even a couple of days after the vaccine, you will still get the flu.

“This is because the vaccine won’t have had time work.”

Can I Get The Influenza Vaccine And Covid

You can get a COVID-19 vaccine and a flu vaccine at the same time.

Theres a potential of an increase in mild to moderate adverse events when more than 1 vaccine is given at the same time.

Children can also safely receive other vaccines any time before, after or at the same time as their COVID-19 vaccination. If your child has recently received another vaccine , its best to let your immunisation provider know so they can correctly assess any side effects.

As with any other vaccine, vaccination will be deferred if youre unwell. If you experience a side effect such as fever following vaccination, other vaccines will not be administered until the side effect has resolved.

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What Are The Possible Benefits Of Using Cell

Observational studies have shown greater protection against flu or flu-like illness among people who received Flucelvax compared to those who received standard-dose egg-based vaccines.

A potential advantage of cell culture technology is that it might permit faster start-up of the vaccine manufacturing process in the event of a pandemic. The cells used to manufacture Flucelvax Quadrivalent are kept frozen and banked. Cell banking ensures an adequate supply of cells is readily available for vaccine production. Growing the flu viruses in cell culture for the manufacture of Flucelvax Quadrivalent is not dependent on an egg supply. Cell-based flu vaccines that are produced using CVVs have the potential to be more effective than traditional egg-based flu vaccines.

What If I Have An Egg Allergy

While most healthcare professionals will ask about possible egg allergies before administering the influenza vaccine, Professor Carroll said the amount of egg protein in the vaccine could be negligible.

“There is the potential for egg protein because it was grown in the egg to get into the vaccine,” he said.

“The amount of egg protein in the vaccine is extremely low and there are limits.

“The recommendation is that even if people are allergic to eggs, they can still have a flu vaccine because there is so little of the egg protein there.

“But if someone is extremely allergic to eggs or worried, they do need to have the conversation with their healthcare professional.”

The Australian Government recommends everyone from six months old be vaccinated, with those in the following higher risk categories eligible for a free shot in 2017:

• people aged 65 years and over
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait people aged six months to less than five years
• Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people who are aged 15 years and over
• pregnant women
• people aged six months and over with medical conditions, like severe asthma, lung or heart disease, low immunity or diabetes that can lead to complications from influenza.

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Flu Vaccine And People With Egg Allergies

• Algorithm for Recommendations

Summary:

CDC and its Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices have not changed their recommendations regarding egg allergy and receipt of influenza vaccines. The recommendations remain the same as those recommended for the 2018-2019 season. Based on those recommendations, people with egg allergies no longer need to be observed for an allergic reaction for 30 minutes after receiving a flu vaccine. People with a history of egg allergy of any severity should receive any licensed, recommended, and age-appropriate influenza vaccine. Those who have a history of severe allergic reaction to egg should be vaccinated in an inpatient or outpatient medical setting , under the supervision of a health care provider who is able to recognize and manage severe allergic conditions.

Most flu shots and the nasal spray flu vaccine are manufactured using egg-based technology. Because of this, they contain a small amount of egg proteins, such as ovalbumin. However, studies that have examined the use of both the nasal spray vaccine and flu shots in egg-allergic and non-egg-allergic patients indicate that severe allergic reactions in people with egg allergies are unlikely. A recent CDC study found the rate of anaphylaxis after all vaccines is 1.31 per one million vaccine doses given.

For the 2021-2022 flu season, there are two vaccines licensed for use that are manufactured without the use of eggs and are considered egg-free:

Changes:

Questions & Answers:

Flu Vaccine Grown Without Eggs Provided Measurably Better Protection This Season Fda Says

The sole influenza vaccine made in cell culture in the United States may have worked about 20 percent better this flu season than the standard vaccines made in eggs, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb said Thursday.

Gottlieb revealed that figure in a hearing of the congressional subcommittee on oversight and investigations, called to explore this years severe flu season and why flu vaccines did not appear to protect especially well.

Gottlieb has said for several weeks that the FDA had data that suggested the cell-culture vaccine performed somewhat better, but this was the first time he publicly quantified the scale of the benefit.

The data arent final yet, but Im comfortable saying that I think its going to be about 20 percent improved efficacy for the cell-based vaccine relative to the egg-based vaccines, Gottlieb told STAT in an interview after the hearing.

The cell-culture vaccine is sold under the brand name Flucelvax it is made by Seqirus.

Experts have recognized for several years now that growing the viruses used in influenza vaccines in hens eggs can cause problems. The viruses have to adapt to grow in eggs sometimes the mutations they acquire occur at critical locations on the virus. This seems to happen most often with H3N2 viruses, which cause the worst seasonal flu outbreaks.

Belongia explained what that would look like as follows:

Right now its speculation, its hypothesis. I dont have the answer.

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Can The Flu Shot Give Me The Flu

No. All flu vaccines used in Australia are inactivated, which means they do not contain the live flu virus so you can’t catch the flu from the vaccine.

Less than 1 in 6 people experience side effects from the flu shot that are similar to the early signs of the flu. These may include fever, tiredness and muscle aches. These side effects can start within a few hours of vaccination and sometimes last for 1 to 2 days. They usually go away on their own, once your body has developed an immune response to the vaccine, which will protect you from the flu virus.

Its important to remember that the side effects show the vaccine is triggering an immune response, which is what its designed to do.

What Are The Current Guidelines For The 2021

Flu viruses change from year to year. So the flu vaccines change every year. Also, the CDC updates its guidelines each year. Below are the current guidelines:

• Everyone 6 month and older should get a flu vaccine every year.
• All flu vaccines are designed to protect against four different flu viruses. This is called quadrivalent .
• Flucelvax Quadrivalent is now approved for people 2 years and older.
• You can get the flu vaccine and COVID-19 vaccine at the same time.

The CDC makes the following recommendations for people with an egg allergy who get the flu vaccine:1

• Anyone who has only hives from egg can receive any licensed and recommended flu vaccine for their age and health status.
• Anyone who has had a reaction to egg other than hives should get the flu shot in a medical facility from a health care provider who can recognize and treat a severe allergic reaction.
• Anyone who has had a severe allergic reaction to the flu vaccine in the past should not get the flu vaccine.

The AAAAI and ACAAI state that the vaccine is safe to give in any setting. There is no special waiting time or other precautions.2

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Rapid Response To Pandemic Flu

The rapid development, production, and distribution of pandemic influenza vaccines could potentially save millions of lives during an influenza pandemic. Due to the short time frame between identification of a pandemic strain and need for vaccination, researchers are looking at novel technologies for vaccine production that could provide better “real-time” access and be produced more affordably, thereby increasing access for people living in low- and moderate-income countries, where an influenza pandemic may likely originate, such as live attenuated technology and recombinant technologies . As of July 2009, more than seventy known clinical trials have been completed or are ongoing for pandemic influenza vaccines. In September 2009, the FDA approved four vaccines against the 2009 H1N1 influenza virus , and expected the initial vaccine lots to be available within the following month.

In January 2020, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Audenz as a vaccine for the H5N1 flu virus. Audenz is a vaccine indicated for active immunization for the prevention of disease caused by the influenza A virus H5N1 subtype contained in the vaccine. Audenz is approved for use in persons six months of age and older at increased risk of exposure to the influenza A virus H5N1 subtype contained in the vaccine.

Flu Shots And Egg Allergies

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that everyone ages six months and older should get an annual flu shot. However, people with egg allergies need to take special precautions, since almost all influenza vaccines are cultured in chicken eggs.

There’s one flu vaccineFlublok, made by Protein Sciences Corporationthat does not use chicken eggs during manufacturing. Flublok is approved for anyone ages 18 and up, so if you’re allergic to eggs and fall into that age range, you should ask specifically for Flublok.

For children and teens under age 18 with egg allergy, the CDC urges them to get the regular flu shot, but only under the direct care of a healthcare provider with expertise in handling severe allergic reactions. Read more about whether people with egg allergies should get the influenza vaccine.

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