New Delhi: Next-generation influenza (flu) vaccines that offer broader and longer-lasting protection than current seasonal vaccines could cut the number of illnesses and deaths worldwide, according to an assessment by the World Health Organization.
According to WHO’s Full Value of Improved Influenza Vaccines Assessment (FVIVA), if improved or universal flu vaccines are rolled out widely between 2025 and 2050, they could prevent as many as 18 billion cases of influenza and save as many as 6.2 million lives globally. The highest number of avoided deaths would be among elderly adults, young children, pregnant women, and persons living with underlying health conditions.
Each year, seasonal influenza leads to around one billion infection cases worldwide. Of these, 3 to 5 million cases are ‘severe’, with an estimated 2.9 lakh to 6.5 lakh people dying from respiratory complications.
In India alone, influenza is linked to an estimated 1.27 lakh deaths annually due to respiratory and circulatory causes, with estimates ranging between 64,046 and 1.9 lakh deaths. Children, the elderly, and individuals suffering from chronic illnesses remain particularly vulnerable.
Experts say current flu vaccines have limitations despite their utility. Their effectiveness also varies by the type of vaccine and population group, and protection is usually effective for only one flu season. Twice a year, experts at WHO recommend which strains should be included in seasonal vaccines based on a review of surveillance data from all over the world. Although 143 countries report the availability of seasonal flu vaccines, most doses are administered only in upper-middle- and high-income countries.
The new generation of influenza vaccines aims to fix these gaps by providing broader protection against multiple strains and longer-lasting immunity than one season. In December 2025, WHO revised its preferred product characteristics for vaccines, demanding safer and more efficacious formulations that mitigate severe disease, have high thermal stability, and are compatible with low- and middle-income nations. The guidance also emphasizes the importance of technology transfer to enable local vaccine manufacturing in nations such as India.
Lower Antibiotics Use
Besides preventing illnesses and deaths, the assessment identifies another critical benefit: decreased use of antibiotics. Ten million unnecessary antibiotic doses are prevented through influenza vaccination, as vaccination reduces secondary infections and inappropriate antibiotic prescriptions. Between 2025 and 2050, next-generation vaccines could therefore help prevent antimicrobial resistance, a major global health concern, by averting up to 1.3 billion defined daily doses of antibiotics.
The WHO analysis also determines that, in many settings, improved influenza vaccines may be cost-effective or even cost-saving in the long run. Their impact is also reliant on healthcare infrastructure, vaccine pricing, and public acceptance. For vaccines to be adopted in low- and middle-income countries, safety, duration of protection, shelf life, and storage convenience will matter most.
The assessment is consistent with WHO’s Global Influenza Strategy 2019-2030 and draws from lessons of the Covid-19 pandemic that sped up vaccine-related research and manufacturing breakthroughs. As of February 2026, there are currently 46 next-generation influenza vaccines under clinical development, employing a variety of technological platforms.
Public health experts say that though the danger of seasonal flu is often overlooked, it continues to pose a heavy health and economic burden. India is seeing more or less the same number of seasonal flu cases but different mortality trends, which means vaccine improvement efforts may become the tipping point in flu management in this country — and the rest of the world — over the next several decades.