BACKGROUND We aimed to assess evidence of efficacy and effectiveness of live attenuated and inactivated influenza vaccines in children up to 16 years of age. METHODS We searched the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, EMBASE Biological Abstracts, and Science Citation Index to June, 2004, in any language, and contacted vaccine manufacturers and authors of relevant studies to identify additional data. W...

1. Abstract 2. Introduction 2.1. Mechanisms of influenza virus evolution 2.2. Resurgence of influenza vaccinology 3. Current influenza vaccines 3.1. Inactivated vaccines 3.2. Live attenuated vaccines 3.3. Limitations of current influenza vaccine strategies 4. Reverse genetics 4.1. Creation of high-growth reassortant vaccine strains 4.2. Other uses of reverse genetics in influenza vaccines 4.3. ...

Despite the availability of an inactivated vaccine that has been licensed for >50 years, the influenza virus continues to cause morbidity and mortality worldwide. Constant evolution of circulating influenza virus strains and the emergence of new strains diminishes the effectiveness of annual vaccines that rely on a match with circulating influenza strains. Thus, there is a continued need for ne...

Influenza virus vaccines are unique among currently licensed viral vaccines. The vaccines designed to protect against seasonal influenza illness must be updated periodically in an effort to match the vaccine strain with currently circulating viruses, and the vaccine manufacturing timeline includes multiple, overlapping processes with a very limited amount of flexibility. In the United States (U...

Influenza vaccines can be categorized in two basic groups—live, which contain small amounts of live, attenuated (weakened) influenza viruses, and inactivated, which contain either whole influenza viruses or subunits of viruses. Only inactivated influenza viruses are licensed for general use in the United States; therefore, this discussion of vaccine safety and efficacy pertains exclusively to i...

Influenza is a worldwide public health concern. Since the introduction of trivalent influenza vaccine in 1978, vaccination has been the primary means of prevention and control of influenza. Current influenza vaccines have moderate efficacy, good safety, and acceptable tolerability; however, they have unsatisfactory efficacy in older adults, are dependent on egg supply for production, and are ti...

Seasonal influenza vaccines provide protection against matching influenza A virus (IAV) strains mainly through the induction of neutralizing serum IgG antibodies. However, these antibodies fail to confer a protective effect against mismatched IAV. This lack of efficacy against heterologous influenza strains has spurred the vaccine development community to look for other influenza vaccine concep...

Despite the availability of vaccines, influenza remains a major public health challenge. A key reason is the virus capacity for immune escape: ongoing evolution allows the continual circulation of seasonal influenza, while novel influenza viruses invade the human population to cause a pandemic every few decades. Current vaccines have to be updated continually to keep up to date with this antige...

The successful isolation of a human influenza virus in 1933 was soon followed by the first attempts to develop an influenza vaccine. Nowadays, vaccination is still the most effective method to prevent human influenza disease. However, licensed influenza vaccines offer protection against antigenically matching viruses, and the composition of these vaccines needs to be updated nearly every year. ...

A relatively high burden of influenza is experienced by young children. In order to successfully tackle the burden of influenza in children, effective vaccines are necessary. Accumulated evidence on the efficacy and effectiveness of traditional inactivated split or subunit trivalent influenza vaccines points towards no significant protection in the youngest children, who are largely unprimed. A...