If accurate (and now there are at least 6 studies that agree with this conclusion), this is not an anomaly. Licensed vaccines have at times been shown to increase, paradoxically, the infections they are meant to prevent. (Then the license is withdrawn.) For details, see my prior post on this topic. According to a detailed article in CIDRAP:
Immunity is not a simple thing. Vaccine theory is in its infancy, and vaccine development is based on trial and error.If that finding is not the result of chance or bias that occurred despite careful study design, the researchers say, then several hypotheses might explain the increased risk. Immunization might block the cross-protective immunity created by an earlier infection. "Original antigenic sin," or immunologic memory dating back to someone's first flu infection, might create antibody responses that are cross-reactive to other flu strains, but not strong enough to be cross-protective, and thus do not neutralize the virus. Or a related phenomenon called "antibody-dependent enhancement" might lead antibodies to inadvertently enhance virus uptake and production.
Here then may be a rather serious unintended consequence of flu vaccination:
The researchers found that (getting an earlier year) seasonal flu vaccination was associated with a 68 percent increased risk of getting swine flu (infection).
2 comments:
This is interesting. I very seldom very caught "the flu", but after having what I was told were "flu shots" in "Basic Training", I started getting the flu very frequently.
Finally, a blog that isn't trying to sell me something! I'd just like to add that, with personal experience as a physician, flu shots really are beneficial, especially in the elderly and young children.
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