The Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, part of the CDC, published new recommendations for influenza vaccines in Annals of Internal Medicine and on the CDC's website.
Any licensed influenza vaccine appropriate for a patient's age and health status may be now administered for the 2018-19 flu season, the committee said.
This recommendation supersedes those of the previous two seasons, in which the use of flu vaccine nasal spray, including FluMist, was not recommended.
The change came after an Aug. 24 report to the CDC on seasonal influenza. Although the live attenuated influenza vaccine was not as effective as inactivated vaccines against the H1N1 strain, its effectiveness did not significantly differ for influenza B and H3N3 strain, the report found.