EFFECT OF INFLUENZA VACCINATION ON HUMAN-IMMUNODEFICIENCY-VIRUS TYPE-1 LOAD - A RANDOMIZED, DOUBLE-BLIND, PLACEBO-CONTROLLED STUDY

To determine if vaccination induces replication of human immunodeficie ncy virus type 1 (HIV-1), 42 HIV-1-infected subjects with CD4 cell cou nts of 200- 500 cells/mu L were randomized to receive influenza vaccin e or saline placebo, Infectious cell-associated and plasma HIV-1 RNA v irus load were measured twice at baseline and then at 7, 10, 14, and 3 0 days after injection by quantitative microculture and branched DNA a mplification, The ratios of the geometric mean plasma HIV-1 load of th e four follow-up visits compared with baseline in vaccine (n = 28) and placebo (n = 14) recipients were similar (1.05 [95% confidence interv al, 0.80-1.37] for vaccine; 0.96 [95% confidence interval, 0.68-1.33] for placebo; P = .90), The geometric mean ratios of plasma virus load at each follow-up visit to baseline did not differ significantly from 1.0 for each group. Infectious cell-associated virus load measures yie lded similar results, CD4 cell counts declined similarly in both group s at 6 months, Influenza vaccination did not increase HIV-1 load in th is controlled clinical trial.