The humoral response to live and inactivated influenza vaccines administered alone and in combination to young adults and elderly.

Background: Vaccination is the most effective way for prevention of severe influenza infection, but the present vaccines are not very efficient in the elderly.

Objective: In this study, we investigated the Ig isotype response to a cold adapted, live, attenuated influenza vaccine (LIV) and a trivalent, subunit, inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV) and the combination of both (LIV/IIV) in young and elderly men, not previously vaccinated against influenza.

Study Design: LIV and IIV containing the strains for 1998-1999 were used.