Administering a quadruple dose of flu vaccine to people with HIV helps erase the deficit of flu protection they appear to experience compared with the general population, MedPage Today reports. Seeking greater insight into the results of past studies that have shown reduced antibody response to flu vaccines among people with HIV, researchers at the MacGregor Infectious Disease Clinic of the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania conducted a study of 195 HIV-positive participants who received either the standard flu vaccine dose or a dose four-times the standard. The scientists published their results in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

Most participants completed the study—97 in the quadruple-dose group and 93 in the standard-dose cohort. The respective seroprotection rates for various strains of the flu among the high- versus the low-dose group were as follows: H1N1: 96 percent vs. 87 percent; N3N2: 96 percent vs. 92 percent; and influenza B: 91 percent vs. 80 percent. Both of the doses proved well-tolerated: 10 percent of each group experienced tenderness at the injection site; 13 percent of the high-dose group and 14.7 percent of the low-dose group had malaise; and a respective 19 percent versus 18 percent experienced myalgia (general pain).

The study was limited by its small size and the small number of participants with fewer than 200 CD4 cells.


To read the MedPage Today report, click here.

To read the study abstract, click here.