Integrated Programme for Influenza Prevention among Community Elderly
2019 Study on Influenza Vaccination Strategy
(Project PIVOT)

In view of the severity of seasonal influenza in older people, Hong Kong Government recommends that all elderly should receive seasonal influenza vaccination every year and subsides all older adults aged 65 or above to receive one in public or private clinics before every winter season. However, the effectiveness of the standard influenza vaccine in older adults is often not as good as in young population, and a number of new vaccine options have been developed in recent years. These include

• trying to make the vaccine more potent by adding supplementary chemicals (adjuvants) to standard vaccine or
• increasing the dose of influenza antigens in the vaccine or
• recombinant influenza vaccine

Several adjuvanted, high-dose and recombinant influenza vaccines^* have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or European Medicines Agency (EMA). Specifically, the MF59-adjuvanted inactivated influenza vaccine, high-dose inactivated influenza vaccine and recombinant influenza vaccine have been shown to induce higher antibody response and provide better protection among older adults against influenza infections as compared to the standard influenza vaccine.