Ma P, Luo Z, Qian J, et al. - Given that disparities in the rate of bacterial infection as well as disease progression by race have been observed in HIV, researchers undertook this inquiry to assess racial disparities in seasonal influenza vaccine responses. Participants were 16 healthy controls, including 9 Caucasians (CC) and 7 African Americans (AA), and 26 aviremic HIV+ individuals who had received antiretroviral therapy, including 11 CC and 15 AA. Before vaccination (D0) and on day 14 (D14) after seasonal influenza vaccination, blood samples were obtained. They found that healthy controls and HIV-infected people exhibited similar absolute counts of CD4+ CD3+ T cells and CD19+ B cells, and these counts were found to be similar in CC and AA in the two study groups. In HIV+ AA vs HIV+ CC, a reduced percentage of peripheral T follicular helper cells was identified. Findings revealed that HIV + AA has reduced fold induction of IgG vs IgM post-influenza vaccination, which possibly indicates impaired class-switching from IgM to IgG in AA HIV-infected people.