With many Bay Area health facilities still in the midst of weathering the current flu season, the World Health Organization is finalizing plans for the next vaccine.
There is an added layer of concern and interest this year amid one of the most severe flu seasons in more than a decade, which has been compounded by an outbreak of the bird flu.
UCSF infectious disease specialist Dr. Peter Chin Hong explains the unusual parallel doctors are focused on.
"The reason why we are paying close attention to the flu season this year is because we have a parallel outbreak in bird flu, as people may know, and the more bird flu and human flu that you have next to each other, the more chances that bird flu can exchange genes with human flu and figure out a way to get inside our bodies more efficiently," Chin Hong said. "Because right now, it’s not doing a great job of that, and that’s why we haven’t seen more human cases."
The WHO is meeting Friday after wrapping up discussions about the chosen strains for the next flu vaccine. Choosing a flu strain for the vaccine is a typical seasonal procedure.
The United States is taking part in the WHO meeting even after President Donald Trump said last month the global health agency had mishandled the COVID-19 pandemic and other international health crises. Trump has indicated that the U.S. will leave the WHO.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration canceled its meeting to select flu strains for next season’s vaccine.
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A spokesperson for the Department of Health and Human Services, which oversees the FDA, did not immediately respond to an NBC request for comment.
Chin Hong says the height of flu season could continue for another couple of months, and it's not too late to get a flu shot.
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