Safety and immunogenicity of prepandemic H5N1 influenza vaccines: A systematic review of the literature

A systematic review was performed to assess the safety and immunogenicity of the prepandemic H5N1 influenza vaccines licensed so far. A bibliographic search according to the COSI protocol was carried out and 8 of 235 potentially relevant publications were selected. Quality assessment was defined with both CASP and Jadad checklists. Taken together, the results from the present systematic review suggest that the inactivated split-virion formulation that includes a low antigen dose (3.8 μg) and an oil-in-water emulsion-based adjuvant, represents the best option in the case of a pandemic, due to its antigen-sparing capacity and its favorable safety profile.