Response of influenza vaccine in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients

Abstract

Background: Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The World health Organization has suggested that elderly individuals with chronic lung disease to be targeted for immunization. In spite of all these recommendations, influenza vaccine is underused, especially in developing countries. Objective: This study aims to study the effect of influenza vaccine in patients with COPD in reducing acute exacerbations, emergency visits, sputum quantity, hospital admission, and Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission in a 2-year period. Materials and Methods: Twenty-five patients of COPD were selected based on their forced expiratory volume in 1 s as having mild, moderate, severe, and very severe COPD. These patients were followed and evaluated for 2 years, 1 year before vaccination, and 1 year after vaccination. The parameters studied are, the number of acute episodes, emergency visits, hospital admission, ICU admissions, sputum quantity, and chest X-rays were evaluated before and after 1 year of vaccination. Results: The vaccine showed a significant decrease in all the parameters (P < 0.001), except for chest X-rays and ICU admission. The overall effectiveness of influenza vaccine was found to be 63.12%. Conclusions: Influenza vaccine is safe and effective among moderate, severe, and very severe COPD patients. It has also been found very effective in severe COPD patients associated with comorbidities.