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Charles Marwick

JAMA. 1988;259(8):1131.

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

A NEW VARIANT of influenza virus is responsible for most of this winter's outbreaks. Unlike last winter, when most of the influenza was caused by the H1N1 form of the A virus, the current outbreaks are caused by the H3N2 form, which itself is significantly different antigenically from an H3N2 virus in circulation last year. (The two influenza A viruses are distinguished by two major antigenic glycoproteins on their surface—"H" for hemagglutinin and "N" for neuraminidase.)

The new variant was isolated in Sichuan, China, last April (JAMA 1988;259:977). It is the virus responsible for an outbreak among passengers on a ship cruising Chinese and Korean waters last October. Passengers who had been vaccinated with the current influenza vaccine experienced the same attack rate as those who had not been immunized.

"This is an unusual situation and we cannot conclude from this experience that the current influenza vaccine is failing to . . . [Full Text PDF of this Article]

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