Influenza Vaccination Rates Are Rising Among the HIV-Infected

Although annual influenza vaccination has been a recommended component of primary HIV care since the early 1990s, compliance rates are often far lower than those for other standard prophylactic measures. In this longitudinal cohort study, researchers examined trends in influenza vaccination among more than 50,000 HIV-infected individuals who were living in 10 cities in the continental U.S. and Puerto Rico.

Vaccination rates rose from 28.5% in 1990 to a high of 41.6% in 2002; this rise was interrupted by a sharp decline to 21.4% in 1995 (possibly reflecting a short-lived concern that vaccination-induced increases in viral load might be clinically detrimental). From 1990 through 1995, participants with CD4 counts >500 cells/mm³ were the least …