British health officials told doctors on Thursday to use H1N1 pandemic shots to protect patients against influenza if they had no seasonal shots available, according to Reuters. Britain is experiencing a surge in both mild and severe flu cases this winter, most of them caused by the H1N1 strain, also known as swine flu, leading to local shortages of seasonal vaccine. Flu vaccines are made by several drugmakers, including Britain's GlaxoSmithKline, France's Sanofi-Aventis and the Swiss firm Novartis, all of which made H1N1 shots last season to deal with the swine flu pandemic. -- SPA
