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Observational Study
. 2015 Apr 15;60(8):1170-5.
doi: 10.1093/cid/civ019. Epub 2015 Feb 18.

Clinical effectiveness of split-virion versus subunit trivalent influenza vaccines in older adults

H Keipp Talbot  1 , Hui Nian  1 , Yuwei Zhu  1 , Qingxia Chen  1 , John V Williams  1 , Marie R Griffin  1
Affiliations
Observational Study

Clinical effectiveness of split-virion versus subunit trivalent influenza vaccines in older adults

H Keipp Talbot et al. Clin Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Inactivated influenza vaccines are manufactured using either split-virion or subunit methods. These 2 methods produce similar hemagglutinin antibody responses, but different cellular immune responses.

Methods: We compared the effectiveness of split-virion influenza vaccines to that of subunit influenza vaccines using prospectively collected data from adults aged ≥50 years who sought care for acute respiratory illness during 3 influenza seasons: 2008-2009, 2010-2011, and 2011-2012 using a case-positive, control test-negative study design.

Results: Complete data were available for 539 participants, of whom 68 (12.6%) had influenza detected. Influenza-infected patients were younger (P<.001), were more likely to have received no vaccine or the subunit influenza vaccine than the split-virion vaccine (P<.001), and more likely to have sought care in either the emergency department or the acute care clinic than the hospital (P=.001). Split-virion vaccine effectiveness was 77.8% (95% confidence interval [CI], 58.5%-90.3%) compared with subunit vaccine effectiveness of 44.2% (95% CI, -11.8% to 70.9%), giving a difference in vaccine effectiveness of 33.5% (95% CI, 6.9%-86.7%).

Conclusions: Studies need to be done to further explore if there are differences in clinical effectiveness in older adults for the 2 vaccine manufacturing methods.

Keywords: clinical effectiveness; influenza; older adults; split-virion vaccine; subunit vaccine.

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Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Effectiveness of subunit and split-virion vaccines for all adults aged ≥50 years over the 3 seasons, and vaccine effectiveness (VE) by age group, individual influenza season, and influenza type. VE is shown side by side for comparison. Effectiveness was truncated at 100% and −100%. Confidence intervals are shown in parentheses.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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