Influenza vaccination does not accelerate HIV infection

Records from the Adult and Adolescent Spectrum of HIV Disease Surveillance Project, reviewed by Dr. Patrick S. Sullivan and other investigators with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, showed that there is a slight decrease in the progression to AIDS-defining opportunistic disease among patients who were vaccinated against influenza. The study involved information from more than 25,000 patients between 1990 and 1999 at 113 clinics in 10 U.S. cities, with the review published in the journal AIDS. Among the 42 percent of patients immunized against influenza, the hazard was 0.93, with a time to death hazard of 0.97, but investigators could not determine whether the improvements were a result of the vaccination itself or a factor related to increased preventive care or overall interest in physical health. While other studies have demonstrated that CD4 cell counts have lowered or HIV RNA levels have increased with the use of an influenza vaccine, this most recent study, with the benefit of a larger sample size, determines that there is no increased risk in giving influenza vaccines to AIDS patients.

This highly powered study would appear to offer the last word on the risk of HIV-disease progression from influenza vaccination.