This year's flu vaccine's success rate is so low, it's literally sickening.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Thursday that the vaccine is showing only a 23 percent success rate this year. This makes it the least effective flu vaccine in the last decade, reported The Associated Press.
Though the findings are low, they are not surprising. Earlier in the season the CDC warned that the vaccine administered this year may not be as effective as past years since it appeared early on to be a bad match for the most common strain (H3N2) going around.
The low success rate was calculated by the CDC in a study with 2,321 people in five states - Michigan, Pennsylvania, Texas, Wisconsin and Washington - who had respiratory illnesses from November to early January. The report was published in the Jan. 16 Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
"Physicians should be aware that all hospitalized patients and all outpatients at high risk for serious complications should be treated as soon as possible with one of three available influenza antiviral medications if influenza is suspected, regardless of a patient's vaccination status and without waiting for confirmatory testing," Joe Bresee, branch chief in CDC's Influenza Division, said in the report. "Health care providers should advise patients at high risk to call promptly if they get symptoms of influenza."
In the last decade, the best matched flu vaccines were about 50 to 60 percent effective, reported AP.
Although the strain of the most common flu virus circulating the country is not a good match for the flu vaccine, the CDC still recommends getting vaccinated because it "can still prevent some infections and can reduce severe disease that can lead to hospitalization and death," according to the report.
