Flu Vaccines Aren’t as Effective on the Obese
Flu Vaccines Aren’t as Effective on the Obese
August 8, 2016
The Jerusalem Post — A new study shows that the obese may get significantly less protection from influenza vaccines than those of average weight.
Led by St. Jude Children’s Hospital in Memphis, Tennessee, the researchers included Dr. Tomer Hertz of BGU’s National Institute for Biotechnology in the Negev and Shraga Segal Department of Microbiology and Immunology.
Dr. Tomer Hertz
The research team found that flu vaccines with adjuvants — agents that can boost vaccine effectivity — did not work as well in very overweight mice. This finding raises concerns about how this problem could translate to obese humans.
While adjuvants improved the immune response to vaccinations in both lean and obese mice, the overall immune response was reduced in the obese group. Following vaccination, the obese mice had lower antibody levels and higher levels of the virus than their lean counterparts.
“There is a critical public health need to translate these findings to humans and understand vaccine response in this growing segment of the population,” the researchers say.
The findings were recently published in the peer-reviewed journal mBio.
Read more on The Jerusalem Post website >>
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