A study found that solid organ transplant (SOT) patients aged 18-64 need inoculation to receive a highly immunogenic influenza vaccine.
CSL Seqirus, a global vaccine company, said Tuesday that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) has expanded its recommendation to include the availability of the adjuvanted inactivated influenza vaccine (aIIV) for adults 18-64 years of age who have received a solid organ transplant.
People who have received a solid organ transplant must take immunosuppressive medications for life and may experience more severe symptoms from the flu.
ACIP's decision is in response to the high risk of complications from influenza in solid organ transplant recipients, who are known to develop lower respiratory tract illnesses, including pneumonia, in 22-49 percent of cases, and 69 percent of those who get the flu are hospitalized, 11 percent of whom are admitted to the intensive care unit, 8 percent require ventilators, and 3 percent die within 30 days.
ACIP analyzed nine studies that compared the effectiveness of vaccination with an adjuvanted inactivated influenza vaccine (aIIV3) and a high-dose inactivated influenza vaccine (HD-IIV3) vs. a standard-dose vaccine (SD-IIV) in recipients who were at least six months post-transplant for adequate protection against influenza, particularly among those who had undergone a solid organ transplant.
The results confirmed that aIIV and HD-IIV provided better immune responses than SD-IIV in recipients receiving immunosuppressive therapy.
Based on these studies and analyses, ACIP recommends aIIV3 and HD-IIV3 vaccination for SOT recipients aged 18-64 who receive immunosuppressive drug therapy.
Accordingly, the recommendation of aIIV and HD-IIV, previously licensed for use in people 65 and older, to SOT recipients 18-64 years of age.
“People who have undergone solid organ transplantation are a high-risk group with a higher risk of complications from influenza infection than the general population, and vaccination with a more immunogenic vaccine is necessary as immunosuppressive drugs that require lifelong use can reduce the preventive effect of the vaccine,” said Park Sun-joo, executive director of CSL Sequirus Korea's Medical Department. “We hope the ACIP's recommendation will raise awareness of influenza disease in high-risk groups, including solid organ transplant recipients, and spread the need for an attenuated influenza vaccine in Korea.”
The American Transplant Congress (ATC) also recommends in its guidelines that all solid organ transplant recipients older than six months, who are at least one-month post-transplant, can receive the highly immunogenic vaccine.