Pandemic 2009 influenza H1N1 virus vaccination: compliance and safety in a single hemodialysis center

Abstract

Background: Acceptance of vaccination against pandemic 2009 H1N1 influenza virus has been poor in some countries, perhaps because of concerns about safety of the new vaccine. Subjects and methods: We prospectively examined vaccination compliance and reasons for nonvaccination in the dialysis patients and the staff of a single hemodialysis unit, after on-site vaccination with a monovalent inactivated adjuvanted H1N1 vaccine. Safety profile was evaluated and compared to that of a control group without chronic kidney disease (CKD). Results: Vaccination acceptance among dialysis patients in our unit was 68% (110/161). Dialysis patients vaccinated against H1N1 had significantly higher compliance with vaccination for seasonal influenza and pneumococcus than those unvaccinated. Three out of 34 (9%) of the unit's staff received the vaccine. Fear of side effects was the main reason for not vaccinating in both groups, while several participants did not consider pandemic influenza a serious disease. At least one adverse reaction was observed in 37/110 (33.6%) of the vaccinated dialysis patients and in 22/42 (52.4%) of the non-CKD control group, p = 0.034. Local mild pain at injection site was the most common side effect of vaccination in both groups. All side effects were of short duration and no serious adverse reactions related to the vaccine or reactions of special interest occurred during the follow-up period. Conclusions: Our findings indicate that immunization against H1N1 virus in dialysis patients is safe and do not support the concerns about safety of the vaccine that was the main reason for nonvaccination in our study.

The coverage of influenza and pneumococcal vaccination among kidney transplant recipients and waiting list patients: A cross‐sectional survey in Denmark

“…32 -35 A history of any prior influenza vaccination was the strongest predictor for receiving an influenza vaccination in the latest season in our study. This corresponds to other studies 15,21,36 ; if people are introduced to immunization and positive about it, they probably will continue to vaccinate. This behavior is also found in other patient populations such as elderly or rheumatic patients.…”

Efficacy of Influenza A H1N1/2009 Vaccine in Hemodialysis and Kidney Transplant Patients

“…In agreement with other experience in dialysis patients (17), minor side effects were reported by most vaccinated individuals, but there were no serious adverse events. Although the augmentation of cellular alloimmunity in transplant recipients after influenza vaccination is well described (18), we did not detect any effect on graft function after vaccination in our patients.…”

The benefit of the doubt or doubts over benefits? A systematic literature review of perceived risks of vaccines in European populations

“…The most frequent concern cited across studies was the opinion that these vaccines could have dangerous adverse reactions [27][28][29][30][31][77][78][79][81][82][83][84][85][86][87][88][89][90]92,[94][95][96][97][98][99][100][101][102][103]. This was often explained by study participants as a perception that these new vaccines were developed too quickly [80,100], resulting in insufficient testing and evidence [31,80,85,86,93,94,98,100,102] and information about long term adverse reactions [82,83,93,95,96]. Studies reported that concerns about inadequate testing also resulted in perceptions of low vaccine effectiveness [32,79,…”