Four-strain vaccine 'protects better against flu', says state virologist

Residents in Belgium who are vaccinated against the flu are better protected than people in neighbouring countries because of the quadrivalent, or four-strain, vaccination, which protects against four flu viruses, according to virologist Marc Van Ranst, who heads up the federal government’s flu campaigns.

Yesterday, the Scientific Institute of Public Health (ISP) announced that there is officially a flu epidemic in Belgium. With 417 flu-related consultations per 100,000 inhabitants over the last two weeks, the epidemic threshold has been surpassed. The annual flu epidemic has come relatively late this year.

De Standaard reported that the vaccination recommended by Belgium’s Superior Health Council (HGR), the three-strain vaccination, only works in half of cases. However, Van Ranst pointed out that three-quarters of the Belgian GPs – and a larger share in Flanders – are prescribing a new four-strain vaccine. This vaccination protects patients from all the current flu variants.

Van Ranst recommended the four-strain vaccination to GPs because of positive results demonstrated in an Australian study. The HGR recommended the three-strain vaccination because the four-strain is only produced by one pharmaceutical company, GlaxoSmithKline, which the council did not want to be seen as favouring.

In neighbouring countries, most people still receive the three-strain vaccination, partially because there was not enough of the four-strain variant to cover the larger populations and partially because those governments also did not want to favour GlaxoSmithKline.

Photo courtesy Ingimage