2020 seasonal influenza vaccines

Influenza vaccines can change from year to year as new strains of influenza virus appear. This is one reason vaccination against influenza is given every year.

The Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee (AIVC) has reviewed data related to epidemiology, antigenic and genetic characteristics of recent influenza isolates circulating in Australia and the Southern Hemisphere, serological responses to previous year's vaccines, and the availability of candidate vaccines viruses and reagents. Based on this review and the World Health Organization's recommendation, the AIVC recommended the viral strains to be used for influenza vaccines in the 2020 southern hemisphere influenza season.

The TGA has accepted the recommendations of AIVC. This year there is a new A (H1N1) like virus strain, a new A (H3N2) like virus strain and a new strain for the B Victoria lineage when compared to the composition of the trivalent and quadrivalent vaccines for Australia in 2019.

The egg-based quadrivalent influenza vaccines contain the following four viral strains:

• an A/Brisbane/02/2018 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus;
• an A/South Australia/34/2019 (H3N2)-like virus;
• a B/Washington/02/2019-like (B/Victoria lineage) virus; and
• a B/Phuket/3073/2013-like (B/Yamagata lineage) virus.

The egg-based trivalent influenza vaccines contain the following three viral strains:

• an A/Brisbane/02/2018 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus;
• an A/South Australia/34/2019 (H3N2)-like virus; and
• a B/Washington/02/2019-like (B/Victoria lineage) virus.

Registered products

For the 2020 influenza season, the following six influenza vaccines, registered by the TGA, will be available for use in Australia for the age groups listed against each product.

All 2020 southern hemisphere seasonal influenza vaccines available for use in Australia are quadrivalent influenza vaccines (QIVs).

* Guidance for the dose in children aged 6-35 months is available in the Product Information.