A examine 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 issues 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 issues. 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 not less than 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 file 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 via 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 issues, 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 tendencies had been noticed for the secondary outcomes of outpatient IRMEs and flu- or pneumonia-related hospitalizations.
The examine authors counsel the broader immune response present by the MF59 adjuvant might account for the upper vaccine effectiveness noticed among the many most susceptible within the inhabitants examine, however say additional analysis is required to analyze how the immune response generated by aTIV contributes to total vaccine effectiveness throughout populations with totally different threat profiles.