- Sullivan, Sheena;
- Khvorov, Arseniy;
- Carolan, Louise;
- Dowson, Leslie;
- Hadiprodjo, A;
- Sánchez-Ovando, Stephany;
- Liu, Yi;
- Leung, Vivian;
- Hodgson, David;
- Blyth, Christopher;
- Macnish, Marion;
- Cheng, Allen;
- Haugenauer, Michelle;
- Clark, Julia;
- Dougherty, Sonia;
- Macartney, Kristine;
- Koirala, Archana;
- Khatami, Ameneh;
- Jadhav, Ajay;
- Marshall, Helen;
- Riley, Kathryn;
- Wark, Peter;
- Delahunty, Catherine;
- Subbarao, Kanta;
- Kucharski, Adam;
- Fox, Annette
Influenza vaccine effectiveness and immunogenicity can be compromised with repeated vaccination. We assessed immunological markers in a cohort of healthcare workers (HCW) from six public hospitals around Australia during 2020-2021. Sera were collected pre-vaccination and ~14 and ~180 days post-vaccination and assessed in haemagglutination inhibition assay against egg-grown vaccine and equivalent cell-grown viruses. Responses to vaccination were compared by the number of prior vaccinations. Baseline sera were available for 595 HCW in 2020 and 1031 in 2021. 5% had not been vaccinated during five years prior to enrolment and 55% had been vaccinated every year. Post-vaccination titres for all vaccine antigens were lowest among HCW vaccinated in all 5-prior years and highest among HCW with 0 or 1 prior vaccinations, even after adjustment. This was observed for both influenza A subtypes and was dependent on pre-vaccination titre. Expanded cohorts are needed to better understand how this translates to vaccine effectiveness.