Professor Featured in Flu Season Stories

As seen in Salon and Yahoo!, NYITCOM-Arkansas Assistant Dean of Research and Associate Professor Rajendram Rajnarayanan, Ph.D., shared insight on the impact of this year’s flu season. One concern among experts is that this year’s flu vaccine was recommended before a new strain (H3N2 subclade K) emerged. Fortunately, early studies show that the vaccine still offers some protection, notably making illness less severe or deadly than it would be otherwise, but the gap between the shot and the virus could explain why so many people still have the flu.

“The reality is that the dominant H3N2 subclade K strain wasn’t fully on the radar when this season’s vaccine formulation was finalized, so the match at a microscopic level is imperfect,” said Rajnarayanan. “[But] that doesn’t mean the vaccine failed.” He went on to explain that while this year’s flu shot “is not perfect enough to prevent every sniffle,” it is “just right when it comes to keeping people out of the hospital and reducing severe disease.”