Flu shots leave heart failure patients at risk

[flashl]

CHICAGO (Reuters) - Patients with heart failure are especially vulnerable to influenza and most doctors recommend they get flu shots, but a study suggests these annual jabs may not offer them full protection, U.S. researchers said on Saturday.

They found heart failure patients in a study had lower immune responses to the vaccine compared with healthy people of similar ages, leaving them more vulnerable to infection.

"What we theorize is that heart failure as a condition leads to impaired immune function, which renders these patients less able to respond to the vaccine," said Orly Vardeny of the University of Wisconsin, who presented the study at the American College of Cardiology meeting in Chicago.

...

In the study, healthy patients had stronger antibody responses than the heart failure patients. Those with heart failure were less able to develop an immune response to the newest strain of flu in the vaccine.

Reuters

[Clear Blue Sky]

1. Damned if you do, damned if you don't...

The flu kills these folks too. And patients with heart failure have problems, independent of the flu or the vaccine.

[midnight]

2. You have got to love this. Damned if you do and

damned if you don't....

[trotsky]

3. Yet the vaccine is still the recommended course of action.

"We're not saying that patients with heart failure should not get immunized," Vardeny said.

And in fact one proposed solution is even more frequent vaccination - booster shots - to better stimulate an immune response.

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

4. Thanks for posting the full truth.

David

[Fire_Medic_Dave]

5. It makes sense that healthy people would have a stronger antibody response.

That's why they are healthy, there immune response works the way it's supposed to. Heart failure patients have bodies that are under constant physical stress, stress lowers the immune response. I can't believe it took a study to figure this out.

David