The following is a summary of “Immunogenicity and safety of inactivated quadrivalent influenza vaccine compared with the trivalent vaccine for influenza infection: an overview of systematic reviews,” published in the August 2023 issue of Infectious Disease by Carregaro et al.

Influenza vaccine reduces disease burden in low- and middle-income countries. Quadrivalent vaccines are more effective than trivalent. Researchers performed a retrospective study to summarize the evidence from systematic reviews on the immunogenicity and safety of Quadrivalent Inactivated Influenza Vaccine (QIV) compared to trivalent vaccine (TIV) in the general population.

They searched for articles up to December 2022 on Web of Science, EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane Library, and SCOPUS. The search adhered to the PICO model. Systematic reviews were incorporated, assessing primary outcomes like immunogenicity (seroprotection and seroconversion rates) and adverse events through risk ratios. Quality assessments employed AMSTAR 2 and ROBIS, while GRADE determined evidence certainty.

The results showed that of five systematic reviews, 47,740 participants. The QIV demonstrated improved immunogenicity in B-lineage mismatch situations compared to the TIV. While QIV’s safety profile matched TIV’s, it led to more significant solicited local pain in adolescents and increased local adverse events in adults.

They concluded that QIV provides superior immunogenicity to TIV in all age groups with similar safety profiles. Caution advised due to study limitations.

Source: bmcinfectdis.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12879-023-08541-0