Flu Vaccine Safe for Kidney Transplant Recipients

Flu vaccination is safe for kidney transplant patients and reduces their risk of organ loss and death.

Flu vaccination is safe for kidney transplant patients and reduces their risk of organ loss and death, a new study says.

Influenza can cause severe illness and even death in some individuals. Organ transplant recipients and those taking immunosuppressant medications face a particularly high risk of dying after being infected. Protection against the flu is especially important for these patients, but earlier reports have suggested that influenza vaccination might activate an immune response that could trigger rejection of transplanted organs. Some studies have also suggested that the immunosuppressant medications that transplant recipients take may decrease the effectiveness of the influenza vaccine.

Quiz on Kidney
The kidneys are two bean-shaped organs, each about the size of a fist, and are located just below the rib cage, one on each side of your spine.

Healthy kidneys filter about half a cup of blood every minute, removing wastes and extra water to make urine. The urine flows from the kidneys to the bladder through two thin tubes of muscle called ureters, one on each side of your bladder. The bladder stores urine. The kidneys, ureters, and bladder are partof the urinary tract.

kidneys remove wastes and extra fluid from your body. Kidneys also remove acid that is produced by the cells of your body and maintain a healthy balance of water, salts, and minerals-such as sodium, calcium, phosphorus and potassium-in your blood ().

About Transplantation
Since the early times, the novel idea of transplanting tissues and other body parts from one organism to the other has captured the imagination of successive generations.

Without this balance, nerves, muscles, and other tissues in the body may not work normally.

Kidneys also make hormones that help

Control your blood pressure
Make red blood cells
Keep your bones strong and healthy

To investigate these issues, Frank Hurst, MD (Walter Reed Army Medical Center and F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine) and his colleagues assessed Medicare claims for influenza vaccination and influenza infections in 51,730 adult Medicare patients first transplanted from January 2000 to July 2006 and were followed through October 2006. There were 9,678 (18.7%) patients who were vaccinated against the flu in the first year after transplantation. These individuals were 23% less likely to experience organ loss and 18% less likely to die during the study period than individuals who were not vaccinated. A total of 310 (0.6%) patients got the flu. They were no more likely to experience organ loss than patients who did not get the flu.

These findings do not support withholding immunization on the basis of concerns that the influenza vaccine could negatively affect transplanted organs. The authors noted, however, that no data are currently available to prove that influenza vaccination actually prevents the flu in transplant recipients.

Study co-authors include Jessica Lee, MD, Kevin Abbott, MD (Walter Reed Army Medical Center and F. Edward Hebert School of Medicine); Rahul Jindal, MD, PhD (Walter Reed Army Medical Center); and Lawrence Agodoa, MD (National Institutes of Health).

Source-Newswise

Quiz on Flu
Influenza (or rather, the flu) is a cold weather infectious condition that affects the young and old alike. Though most reported cases are mild, the flu can sometimes cause severe and life-threatening complications in both children and adults, thanks to wrong medications and improper vaccinations. Learn more about the disease from our Flu Quiz and guard yourself and your family from a possible infection.