Flu Shot Half-Dose Works Well in Young Adults
A new finding suggests that a half-dose flu shot is sufficient enough to trigger an immune response in healthy adults under age 50 who have had prior flu vaccinations.
A study that involved healthy adults between the ages of 18 and 64, who’d been vaccinated within the past one to three years was conducted, recently. In that study, they gave a full-dose flu shot to 554 participants and a half-dose shot to 556 participants. (Why they couldn’t have done 555 each, I don’t know.)
Blood samples were taken before and three weeks after the vaccination and tested for antibodies. The volunteers also reported any flu-like symptoms they had experienced.
“Antibody responses to intramuscular half-dose trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine in healthy, previously immunized adults were not substantially inferior to the full-dose vaccine, particularly for ages 18 to 49 years,” the researchers wrote.
The study is published in the December 8th issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.
-via US News
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more about preventing seasonal flu.
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