Perez-Vilar S, Wernecke M, Arya D, Lo AC, Lufkin B, Hu M, Chu S, MaCurdy TE, Kelman J, Forshee RA. Surveillance for Guillain-Barré syndrome after influenza vaccination among U.S. Medicare beneficiaries during the 2017-2018 season.
Vaccine 2019;
37:3856-3865. [PMID:
31122853 DOI:
10.1016/j.vaccine.2019.05.041]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 14] [Impact Index Per Article: 2.8] [Reference Citation Analysis] [What about the content of this article? (0)] [Affiliation(s)] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 03/12/2019] [Revised: 05/13/2019] [Accepted: 05/14/2019] [Indexed: 11/18/2022]
Abstract
BACKGROUND
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services have been actively monitoring the risk of Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) following influenza vaccination among Fee-for-Service (FFS) Medicare beneficiaries every season since 2008. We present our evaluation of the GBS risk following influenza vaccinations during the 2017-2018 season.
METHODS
We implemented a multilayered approach to active safety surveillance that included near real-time surveillance early in the season, comparing GBS rates post-vaccination during the 2017-2018 season with rates from five prior seasons using the Updating Sequential Probability Ratio Test (USPRT), and end-of-season self-controlled risk interval (SCRI) analyses.
RESULTS
We identified approximately 16 million influenza vaccinations. The near real-time surveillance did not signal for a potential 2.5-fold increased GBS risk either in days 8-21 or 1-42 post-influenza vaccination. In the SCRI analyses, we did not detect statistically significant increased GBS risks among influenza-vaccinated Medicare beneficiaries ≥65 years for either the 8-21 or 1-42-day risk windows for all seasonal vaccines combined, high-dose vaccine, or standard-dose vaccines; we did detect an increased GBS risk in days 8-21 post-vaccination for individuals vaccinated with the adjuvanted vaccine (OR: 3.75; 95% CI: 1.01, 13.96), although this finding was not statistically significant after multiplicity adjustment (p = 0.146).
CONCLUSIONS
Our multilayered surveillance approach-which allows for early detection of elevated GBS risk and provides reliable end-of-season SCRI estimates of effect size-did not identify an increased GBS risk following 2017-2018 influenza vaccinations. The slightly increased GBS risk with the adjuvanted vaccine, which was not statistically significant following multiplicity adjustment, is consistent with the package inserts of all U.S.-licensed influenza vaccines, which warn of a potential low increased GBS risk. The benefits of influenza vaccines in preventing morbidity and mortality heavily outweigh this potential risk.
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