A season of change for the influenza vaccination

The 2018/19 influenza vaccination season is witnessing some major changes with regards to the choice of vaccine. In previous years some Clinical Commissioning Groups (CCGs) were putting pressure on GP practices to purchase the cheapest influenza vaccine available. There were even cases where practices had to cancel orders for the quadrivalent inactivated vaccine (QIV) for the 2017/18 (last) season, changing their orders for the cheaper trivalent inactivated vaccine (TIV). Vaccinating children has achieved a statistically significant improvement in the children visiting their GP practices with influenza-like illness.1 A welcome parallel achievement was the statistically significant decrease of adults aged 18