Annual influenza vaccination does not prevent natural immunity

Earlier studies have suggested that having repeated annual influenza vaccination can prevent natural immunity to the virus, and potentially increase the susceptibility to influenza illness in the event of a pandemic, or when the vaccine does not ‘match’ the virus circulating in the community. But now, researchers at the Influenza Center in Bergen have published a study, which concludes that annual influenza vaccination does not increase susceptibility to influenza infection in years of vaccine mismatch.