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Charles Marwick

JAMA. 1999;281:887-888.

	Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings.

BETHESDA, MD—With this year's flu season little more than an achy, sneezy memory, the Vaccine and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee has begun to select antigenic strains for the first influenza vaccine of the 21st century.

The committee has recommended retaining the current component of influenza A(H1N1), the strain known as A/Beijing/262/95, and has deferred a recommendation for A(H3N2) and the B strain.

An influenza virus, such as the Beijing strain, has a core of RNA genetic material (shown in green) surrounded by a layered coat or capsid. Purple spheres in the coat consist of protein units; external to these is a lipid envelope (yellow-orange). Influenza viruses have a fringe of surface spikes: hemagglutinin (blue), which adhere to the host cell, and neuraminidase (red). It is these antigen spikes that can mutate and change form to neutralize the host's immune system, so causing different influenza epidemics, such . . . [Full Text of this Article]

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