Flu shots don’t trigger asthma

By Joe Stuteville

The study, which took place in part at the Indiana University School of Medicine, was conducted by the American Lung Association Asthma Clinical Research Centers network. Its findings have important health implications, because influenza causes substantial illness in both children and adults with asthma.

The study proves that flu shots do not cause asthma attacks, noted IU researcher Dr. John Mastronarde, whose work at the Asthma Clinical Research Center in Indianapolis is supported by the ALA-Indiana.

“Unfortunately, only about 10 percent of people with asthma currently get a flu shot, in part because they have been afraid it would adversely affect their asthma,” said Mastronarde, a clinical assistant professor. “If everyone with asthma gets a flu shot this year, we can potentially prevent millions of asthma attacks, many of which would have been severe and resulted in hospitalizations.”

And the time for the flu vaccine is now. “We urge children and adults with asthma who haven’t already received a flu shot this year to get one right away,” said Francis Kenny, ALA-Indiana’s chief executive officer.

“This study shows for the first time that the influenza vaccine is safe to use for children and adults with asthma, regardless of the severity of their asthma,” said the study’s lead author, Dr. Mario Castro, principal investigator for the Washington University/St. Louis American Lung Association ACRC. “The flu vaccine is effective in preventing illness in 70-90 percent of cases.”

Castro noted that in the past, some physicians have been concerned about giving the flu shot to patients with severe asthma, or to children with asthma. “We found that the flu vaccine was safe for both groups,” he said. “The study found that people with asthma did not have any higher rates of side effects for the 14 days after receiving the influenza vaccine compared with those who received placebo, or inactive shot.”

The study included 2,032 children and adults - 106 from Indiana - who were diagnosed with asthma. Patients were randomly assigned to receive the actual flu shot or a placebo injection that did not contain the flu vaccine. The two groups switched mid-study so that all participants received the real flu vaccine by the end of the study.

The study was conducted and funded by the American Lung Association, which has 19 ACRC centers nationally, including Indiana. An estimated 26 million Americans (8.6 million under the age of 18) have been diagnosed with asthma. Of these 26 million, 10.6 million (3.8 million children under 18) had an asthma attack or episode in the past year.

More than 321,000 people in Indiana have asthma, including 92,600 under 18. More than 8 percent of Hoosiers have asthma; Indiana ranks 13th nationally in reported asthma. Over the past two decades, asthma deaths have risen dramatically. The number of deaths attributed to asthma has increased by 109 percent, from 2,598 in 1979 to 5,438 in 1998. Influenza can be very dangerous for people with asthma and other high-risk conditions, including those with other lung ailments, as well as those with heart and kidney disease. Hospitalization rates for such people increase two- to five-fold during major flu epidemics.