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Flu vaccine may protect against pneumonia

The majority of people hospitalized for influenza-associated pneumonia had not received a flu vaccine, according to study results published in JAMA.

“Among children and adults hospitalized with community-acquired pneumonia, those with laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated pneumonia, compared with those with pneumonia not associated with influenza, had lower odds of having received influenza vaccination,” Carlos G. Grijalva, MD, MPH, of Vanderbilt University School of Medicine, and colleagues wrote.

Grijalva and colleagues evaluated 2,767 patients who were hospitalized with pneumonia between 2010 and 2012 in the Etiology of Pneumonia in the Community (EPIC) study.

The EPIC study prospectively observed patients with community-acquired pneumonia from four U.S. centers, where patients were at least 6 months old and were vaccinated during the influenza season. Patients who were recently hospitalized, who resided in chronic care residential facilities and who had severe immunosuppression were excluded from the study.

Researchers used a logistic regression analysis to determine the odds of vaccination for patients who developed influenza and for patients who did not develop influenza in the control group, according to the abstract. They also analyzed factors such as study site, disease onset timing, season and comorbidities.

Of the patients hospitalized for pneumonia, 162 (5.9%) had laboratory-positive influenza, and 28 of those patients had influenza-associated pneumonia. There were 766 patients of the 2,605 patient control group who developed pneumonia but did not have influenza and were vaccinated.

Grijalva and colleagues concluded there was an adjusted odds ratio of 0.43 for prior vaccinations between patients with influenza and pneumonia and the control group (95% CI, 0.28-0.68), with an estimated vaccine effectiveness of 56.7%. – by Jeff Craven

Disclosure: The researchers report consultant roles with, as well as grant or other financial support from, AbbVie, bioMerieux, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Pfizer, Roche and several other companies.