Australian recommendations for the Influenza Vaccine composition for the 2001 season

This report published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 24, No 10, October 2000 contains recommendations for the influenza vaccine composition.

Page last updated: 10 November 2000

A print friendly PDF version is available from this Communicable Diseases Intelligence issue's table of contents.


In order to select virus strains for the manufacture of Influenza Vaccine for 2001 Season, a meeting of the Australian Influenza Vaccine Committee (AIVC) on Influenza Vaccines was convened on 25   October 2000.

Having considered the information on international surveillance by WHO and up-to-date epidemiology and strain characterisation presented at the meeting, the Committee considered that the WHO recommendations on the composition of vaccines for 2001 Southern Hemisphere Season should be followed:

H1N1 strain: an A/New Caledonia/20/99 (H1N1)-like strain
A/New Caledonia/20/99 (IVR-116) is recommended as a suitable vaccine strain.
15 µg HA per dose.
H3N2 strain: an A/Moscow/10/99 (H3N2)-like strain
A/Panama/2007/99 (RESVIR-17) is recommended as a suitable vaccine strain.
15 µg HA per dose.
B Strain: A B/Sichuan/379/99-like strain
B/Johannesburg/5/99 is recommended as the suitable vaccine strain. The B/Victoria/504/00 may also be endorsed as an alternative vaccine strain if the yield of this strain is greater and further testings confirm that it is a B/Sichuan/379/99-like strain.
15 µg HA per dose


Further advice concerning the suitability of the B/Victoria/504/00 will be provided as soon as the data are available.

The SRID reagents for testing the potency of influenza vaccines for A/New Caledonia/20/99 (IVR-116) and A/Panama/2007/99 (RESVIR-17) are available from NIBSC and CBER/FDA. However, the preparation of B strain reagents is still in progress and they need to be calibrated jointly by CBER, NIBSC and TGAL. There will be updates for the B reagents as soon as they become available.


This article was published in Communicable Diseases Intelligence Volume 24, No 10, October 2000.

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This issue - Vol 24, No 10, October 2000