How many types of Flu vaccines will be available in market?
There are two types of vaccines available for flu, one is the shot or the injection that contains killed virus and other one is nasal spray that contains live but weakened virus. Flu shot is an inactivated vaccine, i.e., it contains killed influenza virus. This flu shot is injected into the person through muscles to stimulate the immune system. Human immune system produces a response in form of antibodies to fight against the dead virus (foreign body). These antibodies attack the influenza virus, when virus enters a person and hence protects the infected person. Nasal spray vaccine is also called LAIV for live attenuated influenza vaccine, which contains weakened influenza virus. The vaccine is termed an attenuated vaccine because the viruses are weakened so that they do not cause severe flu symptoms. I wrote about the nasal spray vaccine (FluMist), its use and side effects in my previous post. How many companies got approval to make swine flu vaccine? Four out of five manufacturers ha
