Nasal flu vaccine houston

David Persse, chief medical officer for the City of Houston. When people receive their flu shots, they will protect themselves and at the same time reduce the demand that our already burden hospitals are likely to face from the upcoming rise in patients with flu-related complications during the flu season. To find the nearest health center and set a flu shot appointment, people can call Health center locations and hours of operation are also available at HoustonHealth.

People can visit their doctor, neighborhood pharmacy or local health department to get a flu shot. Many grocery stores also offer the vaccine. People can receive flu and COVID vaccines at the same time—in different arms—during a visit to their medical provider. This season all flu vaccines are quadrivalent, meaning they protect against four different flu viruses. Navin Varadarajan, University of Houston M.

Anderson Professor of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering, and his colleagues, are reporting in iScience the development of an intranasal subunit vaccine that provides durable local immunity against inhaled pathogens.

To solve those problems, Varadarajan collaborated with Xinli Liu, associate professor of pharmaceutics at the UH College of Pharmacy, and an expert in nanoparticle delivery. The function of the adjuvant is to promote the body's immune response.

Our results show that the candidate vaccine formulation is safe, produces rapid immune responses -- within seven days -- and elicits comprehensive immunity against SARS-CoV-2," said Varadarajan.

A fundamental limitation of intramuscular vaccines is that they are not designed to elicit mucosal immunity. As prior work with other respiratory pathogens like influenza has shown, sterilizing immunity to virus re-infection requires adaptive immune responses in the respiratory tract and the lung. The nasal vaccine will also serve to equitably distribute vaccines worldwide, according to the researchers.

It is estimated that first world countries have already secured and vaccinated multiple intramuscular doses for each citizen while billions of people in countries like India, South Africa, and Brazil with large outbreaks are currently unimmunized. These outbreaks and viral spread are known to facilitate viral evolution leading to decreased efficacy of all vaccines.

The flu vaccine is especially important for people with chronic health conditions and those who have a high risk of developing complications from the flu. If you have questions about which vaccine is best for you, talk to your doctor or other healthcare professional. Alternatively, Texans can call or visit Texas. Skip to content 3. Flu Vaccination.