October 2019 (Infectious Diseases Society of America)
Two new analyses of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) influenza surveillance data have found that flu vaccines lowered the risk of hospitalization in children and death in adults.
These findings, presented at the 2019 ID Week, followed almost 50,000 combined patients over at least two flu seasons. The study done on children took data from seven different medical centers to see if the children hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza had been vaccinated or not.
Their findings showed that vaccination had halved the risk of a child being hospitalized due to the flu, and that these vaccinations were the most effective against the A(H1N1) and B flu viruses. The second study focused on those over the age of 18 that were hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza and had faced severe outcomes including death, pneumonia, admission into the intensive care unit, and/or mechanical ventilation.
Results indicated that those that were found to the A(H1N1) virus but had received a vaccination that season had a reduced risk of severe outcomes by 36%.
Overall, these two studies both show how beneficial flu vaccines are for people of all ages, and that anyone eligible to receive them should do so every year.