Flu Vaccine Effective In The Elderly, Study Finds

A research group in Singapore has demonstrated that the flu vaccine induces a strong protective immune response in the elderly.

AsianScientist (July 7, 2019) – Scientists in Singapore have found that healthy elderly individuals are able to mount strong immune responses to the influenza virus upon vaccination. They reported their findings in the journal Immunity & Ageing.

Intuitively, one might expect the strength of immune responses to decline with age, which means that vaccinations in the elderly may not be as protective against common viruses such as influenza. However, researchers at the Singapore Immunology Network (SIgN) have demonstrated that elderly participants in their study exhibited very robust antibody responses comparable to the younger individuals.

The elderly subjects involved in the study were recruited through the ongoing Singapore Longitudinal Ageing Study (SLAS-2), a population-based cohort study of ageing and health among Chinese elderly in Singapore driven by the National University of Singapore.

The researchers measured the levels of antibodies in the body fluids of vaccinated elderly participants and found high and sustained antibody titers against various strains of the influenza virus, even at 28 days post-vaccination. The findings also suggest that antibody responses in the elderly, induced by the influenza vaccinations, are not impaired by frailty levels of these elderly subjects.

“Of course there are other factors at play, including genetics, previous exposures to the viruses, nutritional status and more, and we have already embarked on further studies to investigate the relationship between some of these factors,” said Dr. Anis Larbi of SIgN who led the study.

The researchers hope that a better understanding of the immunological activity of the elderly in response to vaccination will help guide policy decisions on the frequency, dosage and composition of influenza vaccination, as well as inform future rational vaccine design strategies.

“Influenza is highly contagious and can even be deadly to some people who develop complications such as pneumonia. These studies serve to reinforce the message that the elderly should get vaccinated to protect themselves, to reduce the risk of contracting the flu,” said Professor Paul Tambyah of National University Hospital, Singapore, a co-author of the study.


The article can be found at: Camous et al. (2018) Healthy Elderly Singaporeans Show No Age-related Humoral Hyporesponsiveness Nor Diminished Plasmablast Generation in Response to Influenza Vaccine.

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Source: A*STAR; Photo: Shutterstock.
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