The U.S. Food and Drug Administration announced today that it has approved vaccines for the 2010-2011 influenza season in the United States.

For many years, researchers have been working to find a way to deliver flu vaccine – whose components are much larger than those of nicotine and hormones – using a transdermal (across the skin) patch.

This report updates the 2009 recommendations by CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) regarding the use of influenza vaccine for the prevention and control of influenza.

A universal influenza vaccine – so-called because it could potentially provide protection from all flu strains for decades – may become a reality because of research led by scientists from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), part of the National Institutes of Health.