Seniors Benefit from Annual Flu Shot

New research is supporting the practice of vaccinating seniors over a series of years.

When older adults had repeat influenza vaccinations, they experienced reduced virus severity and fewer hospitalizations.

This new research was published in Canadian Medical Association Journal.

A team of Spanish researchers found repeated influenza vaccinations were twice as effective in preventing severe influenza in seniors.

Moreover, this effect was consistent regardless of flu season, virus subtypes or age of the patient.

"Repeated vaccination for influenza was highly effective in preventing severe and fatal infection caused by influenza in older adults," write Dr. Itziar Casado and Dr. Jesús Castilla, Instituto de Salud Pública de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain, with coauthors.

The study adds to findings from previous research that shows influenza vaccination reduces the severity of the illness.

In comparison with patients who were unvaccinated in the current and 3 previous seasons, influenza vaccination in the current and any previous season was 31% (95% CI 13% to 46%) effective in preventing admissions to hospital for non-severe influenza.

Additionally, the estimates of effectiveness were higher for preventing admission to the ICU because of influenza (74%, 95% CI 42% to 88%) and for preventing death (70%, 95% CI 34% to 87%).

Vaccination that occurred only in the current season did not show significant protection against severe influenza (−1%, 95% CI −147% to 59%)

"Because severe cases of influenza may be prevented by 2 mechanisms, the effectiveness of vaccination against severe influenza may be greater than that for mild cases, and the benefit of influenza vaccination may be greater than that estimated in previous studies.

The prevention of severe and fatal infection caused by influenza was observed mainly in patients who were vaccinated in both the current and previous seasons, which reinforces the recommendation of annual vaccination for influenza in older adults," the authors conclude.

It's hard to know which flu shot is best for seniors since there are two vaccines designed specifically for people 65 and older:  A high dose vaccine and an adjuvant vaccine said these researchers.

But, a recent clinical trial reported the superiority of non-egg based flu vaccines over the traditional egg-based quadrivalent inactivated vaccine.

A recent study published in the New England Journal of Medicine showed that Seniors (50+) given Flublok® Quadrivalent were over 40% less likely to develop culture-confirmed influenza.

Flublok was reported to contain three times more active ingredients than traditional vaccines and produced significantly higher immune responses to the A strains of influenza, especially H3N2, according to a study.

Furthermore, Flublok Quadrivalent is the first and only high antigen-content quadrivalent flu vaccine that, with its high efficacy, makes it ideal for older adults and those with a compromised immune system.

Most pharmacies in the USA offer several FDA approved flu vaccines.

The flu shot cost varies depending on your insurance and which state you live. The CDC Vaccine Price List provides the private sector vaccine prices for general information.

Flu vaccine discounts can be found here.

The Canadian Medical Association study was approved by the ethics committees of the participating hospitals: Itziar Casado, Ángela Domínguez, Diana Toledo, Judith Chamorro, Jenaro Astray, Mikel Egurrola, María Amelia Fernández-Sierra, Vicente Martín, María Morales-Suárez-Varela, Pere Godoy and Jesús Castilla; for the Project PI12/02079 Working Group.