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Being vaccinated against the flu virus can reduce the severity of the infection, even when the vaccine does not prevent the flu virus, a recent study has shown.
Discovery is especially important for people aged 65 and over. These people experience up to 90% of influenza-related deaths and more than half of influenza-related hospitalizations. According to the latest influenza weekly report published by the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), more than 900 elderly people in the United States have reported positive specimens for the flu up to now during the season influenza.
In a study conducted in the north-east of Spain, researchers from the University of Barcelona and public health agencies discovered that the effectiveness of a flu vaccine to prevent admissions to the intensive care unit or deaths of people 65 years and older accounted for 44% of the total. hospitalized patients for influenza.
The effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing ICU admissions or deaths is 23%, showed data from 12 hospitals.
"This study, based on the surveillance of hospitalized severe influenza cases confirmed in laboratory from 2010/11 to 2015-2016 in Catalonia, has shown an effectiveness of influenza vaccination in the 23% reduction in the number of influenza patients." admissions to the USI or the number of deaths, "wrote the researchers.
Most hospitalized patients for severe influenza are in the age group 65 years and older. Many have underlying health problems that carry a higher risk of complications badociated with influenza, ICU admission and death, the researchers noted.
"Influenza vaccination could reduce ICU admission and death in these patients by reducing the severity of the disease," they said.
Although influenza vaccines effectively prevent visits to primary care physicians and hospital admissions, chronic conditions and risk factors, such as aging, can hinder the success of the vaccine response.
But studies differ on the effectiveness of the vaccine in reducing the most serious effects of influenza: admissions to ICU and deaths of patients whose vaccine did not prevent him from becoming infected.
The CDC announced in August that a study it supported had shown that influenza vaccines reduce the risk of severe influenza in adults, including hospitalizations and hospitalizations. Vaccination has also reduced the severity of the disease.
In this study, vaccinated adults decreased by 37% their risk of being admitted to hospital with the flu and being placed in a common bed chamber. An influenza vaccine was even more effective in preventing the most serious forms of influenza. This reduced the risk of admission to an ICU with influenza by 82%.
The CDC noted at the time that while the effectiveness of annual influenza vaccination varies, it remains the best possible prevention of influenza and its potentially serious consequences.
In this study, researchers examined 1727 patients aged 18 years and older who had been hospitalized for influenza in the Catalan region of Spain during six influenza seasons ending in 2016.
Of this group, 591 (34.2%) were admitted to ICU and 223 (12.9%) died.
A total of 1,285 (74.4%) patients had one or more influenza risk factors, but only 450 (26.1%) had influenza vaccine. The team discovered that, with the exception of one season (2013/2014), the vaccine had a positive effect, although this effect was not significant in some seasons.
This suggests a significant potential impact of vaccination on reducing the severity of the flu.
"Influenza vaccination is a good prognostic factor because it reduces the severity of influenza-badociated illness in patients for whom vaccination has not prevented influenza," the authors wrote. investigators.
One of the explanations for these results is the role played by the immune system in the influenza virus.
"People who had previously been infected with the virus or who had received an influenza vaccine would at least benefit from the pre-existing cross-media memory of cytotoxic T lymphocytes, which would reduce the severity of the infection, even without protective antibodies. , Noted the investigators.
The study "The effectiveness of influenza vaccine in reducing serious consequences in six influenza seasons, case-case badysis, Spain, 2010/11 to 2015/16" was published online in Eurosurveillance.
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