A research of affected person information from the 2019-20 US flu season discovered that the MF59-adjuvanted flu vaccine was simpler than the high-dose flu vaccine at stopping severe flu problems in older adults with threat components, researchers reported late final week in Open Discussion board Infectious Ailments.
The MF59-adjuvanted trivalent influenza vaccine (aTIV) and the high-dose trivalent influenza vaccine (HD-TIV) are each designed for adults age 65 and older, who’re at severe threat from severe flu problems. An adjuvant is an immune-boosting agent added to vaccines.
Earlier research have discovered the 2 vaccines to have related effectiveness in older adults, together with those that have at the very least one underlying well being situation recognized to extend their threat of experiencing extreme flu. However there’s restricted analysis on how a number of concurrent high-risk situations have an effect on vaccine effectiveness.
aTIV simpler in adults with a number of threat components
Utilizing digital well being report information linked with pharmacy and medical claims, researchers estimated the relative vaccine effectiveness (rVE) in 1,115,725 aTIV recipients and a pair of,561,718 HD-TIV recipients from August 2019 by means of January 2020. The first measure was prevention of influenza-related medical encounters (IRMEs). The secondary final result was outpatient IRME and flu- and pneumonia-related hospitalizations.
Amongst older adults with threat components for problems, aTIV was simpler than HD-TIV at stopping any IRME, with an rVE of 12.5% (95% confidence interval [CI]10.0% to fifteen.0%) for adults with 1 or extra threat issue, 18.4% (95% CI, 13.7% to 22.8%) for adults with 1 or 2 threat components, and 10.4% (95% CI, 7.4% to 13.3%) for adults 3 or extra threat components. No distinction in rVE was noticed amongst older adults with no threat components.
The identical traits have been noticed for the secondary outcomes of outpatient IRMEs and flu- or pneumonia-related hospitalizations.
The research authors counsel the broader immune response present by the MF59 adjuvant could account for the upper vaccine effectiveness noticed among the many most weak within the inhabitants research, however say additional analysis is required to research how the immune response generated by aTIV contributes to general vaccine effectiveness throughout populations with completely different threat profiles.