The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimate that, on average, the flu costs employers approximately $10.4 billion a year in direct costs for adult hospitalization and outpatient visits.The cost of hosting a flu shot clinic pales in comparison, but regardless of your approach to the upcoming flu season, there is no doubt that this virus costs your business money. This is one reason why wellness experts are excited to see the continued development of a universal flu vaccine by researchers at Stanford University, one that could be produced quickly and offer more widespread protection than the shots available today.
The breakthrough is a result of a better understanding of a key protein, hemagglutinin (HA). Hundreds of copies of HA stick out from the surface of the flu virus. Each copy of HA looks like a mushroom, with a head and a stem. The head of the HA helps determine the wrath of a specific strain of flu.
Today's available vaccines are created using inactivated viruses that contain the heads of HA proteins. When we get a flu shot, our immune system sees the HA head as a target and creates antibodies to fight what appears to be an infection, protecting you from falling sick with that flu virus in the future. If a vaccine is developed that is based on the stem (which remains more constant over time than the HA heads), it should be more broadly protective against varying strains of flu, and could possibly provide universal protection.
However, this approach remains experimental and hasn't been tested on human patients. Next, researchers will attach their stem protein to a virus-like particle, creating a larger, better target with which to elicit an immune system response. If that step is successful, the new vaccine candidate would have to undergo rigid safety and efficacy tests and, ultimately, large-scale clinical trials in humans.
Recent statistics estimate the annual worldwide death toll from flu-related illnesses at between 250,000 and 500,000 people. The development of a universal flu shot is an important project not only for corporate wellness, but for world health as whole.
Most experts estimate that the development of a universal flu vaccine is still between 5 and 10 years away, so in the meantime, protect your employees by hosting yearly flu shot clinics with the newest quadrivalent vaccine.