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Am J Epidemiol. 1995 Jun 1;141(11):1089-96.
Multiple false reactions in viral antibody screening assays after influenza vaccination.
Simonsen L1, Buffington J, Shapiro CN, Holman RC, Strine TW, Grossman BJ, Williams AE, Schonberger LB.
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Abstract
In December 1991, US blood centers reported an unusual increase in donations that tested falsely reactive for antibodies to two or more (multiple false positive) of the following viruses: human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1), human T-cell lymphotrophic virus type I (HTLV-I), and hepatitis C virus. Many of these donations were from people who had recently received the 1991-1992 influenza vaccine, raising the possibility that this vaccine had somehow specifically caused the problem of multiple false reactivity. A case-control study of 101 affected donors and 191 matched controls found that recent receipt of any brand of influenza vaccine was significantly associated with testing multiple false positive (p < 0.05), as was a history of recent acute illness (p < 0.05) and of allergies (p < 0.05). Surveillance for monthly rates of multiple reactive donations from May 1990 through December 1992 linked the seasonal cluster of multiple false-positive donations to the use of viral screening test kits thought to react nonspecifically to donor immunoglobulin M. There was no similar increase in multiple false-positive donations during the 1992-1993 influenza vaccination season after the HIV-1 and hepatitis C virus tests were replaced; however, the number of donations that were falsely reactive for only HTLV-I almost doubled, indicating that false reactivity was not specifically associated with the 1991-1992 influenza vaccine. Retesting of affected donors found that the duration of HTLV-I and hepatitis C virus false reactivity was 3-6 months. The cluster of multiple false-positive donations in 1991 was most likely caused by the test kits used, rather than by the influenza vaccine.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7539579