Flu Vaccine Could Reduce Asthma Attacks

Influenza vaccines effectively prevent the flu and even reduce asthma-related complications among patients with asthma, according to the findings of a recent study. 

In the systematic review, researchers located 35 studies from 12 international databases that included 142,519 patients with asthma.
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Pooled vaccine effectiveness in 1825 persons from 2 test-negative design case-control studies was 45% for laboratory-confirmed influenza. Live vaccines had a pooled efficacy of 81% for reducing influenza and reduced febrile illness by 72%.

In addition, influenza vaccines were found to prevent 59% to 78% of asthma attacks leading to emergency room visits and hospitalizations.

“For persons with asthma, influenza vaccination may be effective in both reducing influenza infection and asthma attacks,” the researchers concluded.

—Melissa Weiss

Reference:

Vasileiou E, Sheikh A, Butler C, et al. Effectiveness of influenza vaccines in asthma: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Clin Infect Dis. 2017;65;8: 1388–1395. https://doi.org/10.1093/cid/cix524.