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Posted on Aug 03, 2008, 8 p.m.
By Jeanelle Topping
Controversy over the recommended flu vaccine is set to continue, following research into how well it protects aging seniors, it has been claimed.
Controversy over the recommended flu vaccine is set to continue, following research into how well it protects aging seniors, it has been claimed.
A Group Health project recorded in the August 2nd issue of the the Lancet has revealed that there was no link between the inoculation and the risk of developing pneumonia.
More than 3,500 Group Health patients aged between 65 and 94 were examined as part of the study, with the cases being people with community-acquired pneumonia while the controls were people of a similar age and sex who had not contracted the illness, Science Daily reports.
In news that may be of interest to anti aging physicians, Michael L Jackson, a postdoctoral fellow at the Group Health Center for Health Studies, said that the project was the largest case-controlled research undertaken of flu vaccine in the elderly.
"[Previous] studies may have over-estimated the benefits of the flu vaccine in the elderly for various reasons," he said.
Mr Jackson added: "This suggests that the flu vaccine doesn't protect seniors as much as has been thought."
