The World Health Organizations issued a warning about the necessity of adapting next year’s vaccines to the new strains of viruses. U.S. officials, together with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also warned about the virus mutations that turn the current vaccines into inefficient methods to stop the infections.   

In the United States alone, the flu has spread in almost every state: “This week 44 states are reporting widespread influenza activity. This is up from 31 states reporting widespread activity last week. Five states are reporting regional activity, making 49 states overall in one of our top two categories of activity,” Dr. Joe Bresee, chief of the branch of epidemiology and prevention at CDC said.

What health officials are most concerned about is that this year’s flu vaccine is no longer able to cover all the strains of the viruses that have been circulating throughout the United States, and some of the strains have become immune to antiviral medication: “two of the three common circulating types or subtypes [of viruses] are not as well-covered by the vaccine as an ideal match this year,” Dr. Bresee added.

For the time being, the flu activity at the beginning of the year is not exactly an alarming one, but at the same time, the problem is that February is the time when flu tends to reach its highest peak, and so far, 10 pediatric deaths have been registered, CDC reports have shown.

Every winter, health specialists work on developing an appropriate vaccine for the season to come, by choosing three strains of viruses, two from the Type A family and one Type B. Usually the assumptions for the next flu season prove to be accurate, but this time, the Type B in the vaccine and the Type B virus were no match, and it was the same problem with one of the Type A components.

Unfortunately, the death occurrence rate in the past years has significantly increased, and specialists need to come up with adequate and updated vaccines every time, so as to prevent such occurrences. The virus is constantly mutating and increasing its resistance to the vaccines, CDC officials warned.