Chapters authored
Antibody Responses after Influenza Vaccination in Elderly People: Useful Information from a 27-Year Study (from 1988– 1989 to 2014–2015)
Elderly people are more likely than younger people to get flu complications and respond suboptimally to influenza vaccination because of the presence of comorbidities and immunosenescence. In order to collect information about this issue, we evaluated data obtained in 27 winters of study, from 1988–1989 to 2014–2015, in frail elderly institutionalized people (≥60 years) vaccinated with commercially available seasonal trivalent inactivated influenza vaccines. The antibody response was examined comparing hemagglutination inhibition antibody titers in sera collected from 4461 volunteers before and 30 days after vaccination. Examining the results as crude mean responses, we evidenced the ability of influenza vaccines to induce significant increases in antibody titers against all the three vaccine antigens satisfying at least one of the three criteria of the Committee for Medical Products for Human Use (CHMP). Higher responses were found against A/H3N2 vaccine components and, examining different subgroups, in volunteers receiving 45 μg vaccine as compared with 30 μg and in female as compared with male subjects. Very elderly people (>75 years) gave better responses than younger elderly (≤75 years) at least against A/H1N1 strain and the last licensed potentiated vaccines (MF59-adjuvanted and intradermal) were more immunogenic than traditional vaccines (whole, subunit, and split).
Part of the book: Steps Forwards in Diagnosing and Controlling Influenza