Influenza vaccine does not cause complications related to asthma or COPD.

2003 JUN 11 - (NewsRx.com & NewsRx.net) -- No association was found between conventional influenza vaccination and complications in working-age patients with asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

Scientists writing in the American Journal of Epidemiology wrote, "By using a nested case-control design, the authors studied the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine in reducing severe and fatal complications in 4,241 and 5,966 primary care, working-age patients aged 18-64 years who had asthma or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease during the 1998-1999 and 1999-2000 influenza epidemics in the Netherlands. Patients developing fatal or nonfatal exacerbations of lung disease, pneumonia, congestive heart failure, or myocardial infarction during either epidemic were considered cases."

"For each case, four age- and sex-matched controls were randomly sampled, and patient records were reviewed," reported Eelko Hak and colleagues at the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care in Utrecht, The Netherlands. "Conditional logistic regression and propensity scores were used to assess vaccine effectiveness after adjustment for confounding factors. In seasons one and two, respectively, 87% (47/54) and 85% (171/202) of the cases and 74% (155/210) and 75% (575/766) of the controls had been vaccinated. After adjustments, vaccination ...