The World Health Organization (WHO) today announced the composition of flu shots for the 2027 influenza season in the southern hemisphere.

The composition of the vaccines is decided by a group of experts the WHO convenes twice a year in February and September. At these meetings, the group reviews data on circulating flu viruses generated through the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) and makes recommendations for upcoming flu seasons in the northern and southern hemispheres. 

Flu season in the southern hemisphere typically stretches from April through September but can last until October or November.

In the September meeting, experts reviewed flu activity from February through August, which was dominated by influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, A(H3N2), and influenza B viruses. 

For egg-based vaccines, the WHO recommends the following:

• an A/Missouri/11/2025 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus;
• an A/Darwin1454/2025 (H3N2)-like virus; and
• a B/Tokyo/EIS13-175/2025 (B/Victoria lineage)-like virus

Recommendations for cell culture-, recombinant protein-, or nucleic acid-based vaccines include:

• an A/Missouri/11/2025 (H1N1)pdm09-like virus;
• an A/Darwin/1415/2025 (H3N2)-like virus; and
• a B/Pennsylvania/14/2025 (B/Victoria lineage)-like virus.

The group also reviews flu viruses circulating in animals to monitor for potential pandemic threats.

‘Global public health collaboration at its best’

The WHO’s director for epidemic and pandemic management said GISRS demonstrates “the power of global solidarity in public health.”

"The commitment of countries and laboratories to share data, viruses and expertise enables WHO to make timely vaccine recommendations, strengthening our collective ability to detect and respond to emerging influenza threats,” Maria Van Kerkhove, PhD, said in a news release. “This is global public health collaboration at its best."

As the Ebola virus spreads to two new health zones in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and cases and deaths mount, G20+ leaders have pledged $2.9 billion to help fight the outbreak.

Today, the World Health Organization (WHO) said the Bundibugyo Ebola virus has infiltrated two more health zones, Bulu in Sud Ubangi and Dunghu in Haut Uele province, raising the total number of affected health zones to 63 in seven provinces.

Case and death numbers have reached 7,890 and 3,799, respectively, for a crude case-fatality rate (CFR) of 48.1%. “At the national level, the number of new cases reported each day remains high,” the WHO said. “However, the situation varies across the country, with some provinces and health zones experiencing much higher levels of transmission than others.”

“The continuously high CFR, and especially the continuous high rate of deaths occurring in communities, highlights the seriousness of the disease and the persistent challenges in timely case detection and access to early and adequate patient care,” the agency added.

‘Pledges alone will not stop Ebola’

The financial commitments, announced at the G20+ Foreign Ministers Meeting on Accelerating Collective Action to Defeat Ebola in New York this week, consist of cash and in-kind assistance, the Africa Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (Africa CDC) said in a press release yesterday.

The continuously high CFR, and especially the continuous high rate of deaths occurring in communities, highlights the seriousness of the disease and the persistent challenges in timely case detection and access to early and adequate patient care.

“We thank the US for this leadership and sense of solidarity by convening the 20 Ministerial meeting,” Jean Kaseya, MD, MPH, Africa CDC director general, said in the release. “But pledges alone will not stop Ebola. We must be able to trace every single dollar—from commitment to disbursement, from implementing partner to expenditure, and ultimately to the services delivered to affected communities.”

At the meeting, the United States pledged an additional $267 million in health and humanitarian assistance for the outbreak, for a total of $887 million. 

“With this new life-saving global health assistance, the United States will directly scale up support to combat the outbreak through new Ebola treatment units, additional safe and dignified burial teams, mass procurements of personal protective equipment, expanded surveillance, critical health commodities, and contact tracing through trusted implementers,” the Department of State said in a news release.

• The Santa Teresa livestock crossing in New Mexico reopened yesterday, 18 months after it closed to contain the importation of New World screwworm (NWS) from Mexican cattle, per media reports. In announcing the reopening, US Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins noted that the pest has not been eradicated from the United States and that the crossing will stay open only if Mexican authorities continue to meet the terms of a joint surveillance and treatment plan. So far this year, NWS has been detected in 49 animals in Texas and New Mexico, including a recent case in a horses in Texas and New Mexico.
• Hillsborough, Pasco, and Pinellas counties in west-central Florida have declared states of emergency to battle dengue fever amid rising cases of the mosquito-borne disease, including one death, in Hillsborough. A Hillsborough emergency order is meant to allow the county to take certain actions to control the mosquito population and pursue federal reimbursement of some expenses. As of September 23, 177 dengue cases had been confirmed in the county. While case counts are low in Pasco and Pinellas counties (two and seven, respectively), the emergency will allow officials to work to prevent the disease from further spreading across county lines, WUSF reported.
• The US National Institutes of Health (NIH) yesterday launched a new artificial intelligence–informed PubMed tool designed to boost the replication and reproducibility of NIH-funded research. The tool, Linked Discoveries, allows scientists to more easily visualize how an individual research finding relates to the larger body of biomedical evidence. So far, the tool links to more than 29 million PubMed publications. 
• This week, Berlin Seeds recalled alfalfa sprout seed after one person became ill and the seed supplier notified the company that the finished sprouts were part of a US Food and Drug Administration investigation of a multistate foodborne illness outbreak caused by Shiga toxin–producing Escherichia coli and Salmonella Agona. A spent irrigation water sample from one seed lot also tested positive for E coli. The seeds were sold at the company’s store in Millersburg, Ohio, and online from February 13 to August 26 to customers in 44 states.
• The Global Polio Eradication Initiative this week reported seven cases of wild poliovirus type 1 (WPV1) in Afghanistan with paralysis onsets in August, one case of circulating vaccine-derived poliovirus type 2 (cVDPV2) in Chad with a paralysis onset in July, and three cVDPV2 cases in the Democratic Republic of the Congo with paralysis onsets in June and August. Afghanistan now has 32 WPV1 cases in 2026, compared with 21 last year.