Review of intranasal influenza vaccine.

Influenza viruses cause costly recurrent annual epidemics. Current efforts to control the morbidity and mortality associated with influenza outbreaks are based on the use of annual intramuscularly administered inactivated vaccines which are not only painful to administer, but are suboptimal in efficacy. This paper reviews the composition, safety analysis, rates of adverse events, immune response and protective efficacy of a new inactivated intranasal influenza vaccine.