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THE FLU VACCINATION MAY PREVENT HEART ATTACKS, SAYS NEW STUDY

Sept 23

It's no news that a flu shot can help prevent influenza – indeed we at Medicentre urge people to get their flu vaccinations every year. However it appears there may well be another bonus; a recent study indicates that older adults who get their jab each year vaccination are less likely to suffer a heart attack.  This was no L'Oreal-style survey of 60-odd people – over 78,000 were involved, all aged over 39 years. 

"Our research suggests that flu shots are associated with a reduction in relative risk of heart attack in adults by about 19 percent," says  Niroshan Siriwardena, a researcher at the University of Lincoln who led the study.

The reduction was even higher - 21 percent - for people who got their vaccination early in the flu season.

The results were mathematically adjusted to reflect the fact that people who are at higher risk for heart attack in the first place are more likely to get a flu vaccine.  

Although Siriwardena is careful to point out that his study is one of associations, and so not necessarily cause-and-effect, he does offer one possible link between the  two very different conditions of influenza and heart attack.

"The key theory is that in coronary arteries which are narrowed, that influenza causes an inflammatory process, which makes the plaques more liable to rupture. So flu is encouraging plaque rupture and triggering off a heart attack. That's the theory."

They found that those who had been given the jab were 19 per cent less likely to suffer a heart attack. The research team also discovered that having the vaccine early in the 'flu season', for example in September and October, was even more effective. Early flu jab patients had a 21 per cent lower chance of heart attack compared to those who had it in when the season was at its peak in the November – February period. Even so, the risk seemed to still be substantially reduced at 12%.

As many as 7 million people have the flu vaccine each year. It is prescribed free on the NHS to vulnerable groups whose lives could be endangered if they caught the virus, such as those with heart of chest conditions.

Medicentre administer thousands of vaccines each year on both an organisation-wide basis, and to individuals. This news certainly indicates that it's a very good idea!

THE FLU VACCINE: INFORMATION

A flu vaccine is an inactivated vaccine, meaning that it contains dead influenza virus. It is injected into muscles and stimulates the immune system to produce an immune response (antibodies). When the live virus enters a person who has been vaccinated, the antibodies attack and kill the virus and prevent infection because they are able to 'recognise' it, as it were.
The vaccine is administered as a single dose of 0.5 ml of liquid as an injection. Typically, the injection is into the deltoid muscle at the side of the arm, using alcohol rubbed over the skin for sterilisation. Side effects of the inactivated flu vaccine are uncommon, but may  include soreness at the site of the injection, muscle aching, fever, and feeling unwell. Serious allergic reactions have been reported, but are extremely rare.

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