Author: McElhaney, Janet E

Source: Aging Health, Volume 4, Number 6, December 2008 , pp. 603-613(11)

Publisher: Future Medicine

Abstract:

Influenza is foremost among all infectious diseases for an age-related increase in risk for serious complications and death. Determining the benefit of current influenza vaccines is largely limited to epidemiologic studies, since placebo-controlled trials of influenza vaccines are no longer considered ethical in the older adult population. Vaccine effectiveness is calculated from the relative reduction in influenza outcomes in individuals who elect to be vaccinated compared with those who do not, the assumptions for which are diverse and have led to considerable controversy as to the exact benefit of influenza vaccination in older adults. In spite of this controversy, there is no doubt that new influenza vaccine technologies are needed to improve protection and reverse the trend of rising hospitalization and death rates related to influenza in older adults despite widespread influenza vaccination programs. This article will review the challenges to new vaccine development, explore the potential correlates of protection against influenza, and describe how new vaccine technologies may improve protection against complicated influenza illness in the older adult population.

Keywords: benefits of vaccination; granzyme B; immunosenescence; impact of influenza; older adults; T-cell responses

Document Type: Research article

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2217/1745509X.4.6.603

Affiliations: 1: Department of Medicine, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada and, Center for Immunotherapy of Cancer & Infectious Diseases, University of Connecticut School of Medicine, 263 Farmington Avenue, Farmington, CT 06030-1601, USA., Email: jmcelhan@interchange.ubc.ca

Publication date: 2008-12-01

More about this publication?

• Aging Health leading coverage of current and emerging topics relating to the safe and effective management of therapy in the elderly, all subject to rigorous peer review. The journal focuses on the most important advances and highlights their relevance in the clinical setting. The journal has been designed to deliver essential concise information in an easily assimilable format - vital for the increasingly time-constrained professional.
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