Managing patients with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases
(Part 3)
In the area of vaccination there are some results that are quite important, first of which is the ability of the vaccines to prevent infections, known as efficacy.
The humoral responses to vaccines are seen as surrogate endpoints for efficacy, particularly for rare infections, that may lead to a need to have a large number of patients to prove the vaccine’s worth.
The ability of vaccines to induce humoral and/or cellular immune responses is known as ‘immunogenicity’.
These immune responses may tell the clinical efficacy in some vaccines, but not necessarily.
This is something to be considered when taking a look at the evidence that is available.
The pieces of evidence are based on the level of efficacy of the vaccines and looks only on efficacy of vaccination. In vaccine studies with only immunogenicity results and based on established expectations on the surrogate outcome.
In the event that there was no direct correlation between the immunogenicity outcomes and the level of protection, the findings were downgraded.
Secondly, there is a need to know about the safety of vaccines.
Vaccines that are safe means there would not be severe adverse impact to the health especially for patients with autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic diseases (AIIRD).
The safety of vaccines is a major concern as it important to determine not only the efficacy but the data available for the safety of these vaccines.