Association between Influenza vaccination and severity of lung involvement at CT images of the patients with COVID-19 infection: an Iranian retrospective case-control study

BACKGROUND: Frequent waves of corona virus disease (COVID-19) and lack of specific drugs against that, warrant studies to reduce the morbidity and mortality of this pandemic disease. In this study, we investigated the association between influenza vaccination and the severity and outcome of COVID-19 disease in Iranian patients living in the North. METHODS: This retrospective case-control study was performed on186 patients with COVID-19 infection between March and April, 2020. Patients with positive PCR were divided into two groups of case and control; Patients with moderate to severe and normal to mild lung involvement, respectively. The lung opacities in all of the 5 lobes were evaluated on chest CT images using a CT severity scoring system. The history of influenza vaccination during the fall of 2019-2020 was determined by a phone call. Statistical analysis was done using the chi-square test, student’s t-test, and logistic regression. The significance level was p<0.05. RESULTS: The mean age of patients was 54.67±15.05years. Most patients had pulmonary manifestations including ground-glass opacity (57%), consolidation (80%) and pleural effusion (3.2%). Adjusting for age, gender, and history of underlying disease, vaccination is an effective factor in the severity of pulmonary involvement (AOR=0.39; 95%CI: (0.21, 0.73); P=0.003). Furthermore, the chance of ICU admission decreased via influenza vaccination (OR=0.21, P=0.001). CONCLUSION: The results showed that the severity of COVID-19 pulmonary involvement and outcome as ICU admission, and severe symptoms in patients with history of influenza vaccination were significantly lower than those without history of vaccination. This strategy can be used to prevent and reduce the complications of COVID-19.