Alan Mozes
Bloomberg Businessweek
05/17/2010
Gender can trigger different immune responses and different side effects to particular vaccines, a new analysis suggests.
The finding, reported in the May issue of The Lancet Infectious Diseases, stems from a review of prior research concerning vaccines that target a range of diseases including yellow fever, influenza, measles, mumps and rubella, hepatitis and herpes simplex. Hormonal changes that occur during pregnancy were also tracked during the review for their possible effect on vaccines.
“Sex can affect the frequency and severity of adverse effects of vaccination, including fever, pain and inflammation,” lead author Sabra Klein, an assistant professor in the department of molecular microbiology and immunology at John Hopkins in Baltimore, said in a news release.
“This is likely due to the fact that women typically mount stronger immune responses to vaccinations compared to men,” she added.