MONDAY, Oct. 10 (HealthDay News) -- A single pediatric dose of the AS03-adjuvanted vaccine against pandemic influenza A/H1N1 (pH1N1) in children aged 6 months to 9 years confers substantial protection against influenza-related hospitalization beginning 10 days after vaccination, according to a study published online Oct. 10 in Pediatrics.
Rodica Gilca, M.D., Ph.D., from the Institut National de Santé Publique du Québec in Québec City, and colleagues analyzed the effectiveness of a single pediatric dose of AS03-adjuvanted vaccine for preventing confirmed pH1N1-related hospitalization in children aged 6 months to 9 years in 2009. Nonhospitalized children with pH1N1 acted as controls, and were matched by age and region of residence to children hospitalized for pH1N1 infection. Vaccination status of the participants was assessed in relation to the date of onset of illness. Conditional logistic regression was used to assess vaccine effectiveness.
The investigators found that a single pediatric dose of vaccine administered 14 days or more before illness onset conferred an overall vaccine effectiveness of 85 percent (95 percent confidence interval [CI], 61 to 94). The effectiveness varied with age and had wide and overlapping 95 percent CIs. Immunization at 10 days or more before onset of illness conferred an overall vaccine effectiveness of 80 percent (95 percent CI, 60 to 90), with similar age-related 95 percent CI variations.
"A single pediatric dose of the AS03-adjuvanted pH1N1 vaccine given to children aged 6 months to 9 years is highly protective against hospitalization," the authors write.
Several authors disclosed financial relationships with vaccine manufacturers, including Pfizer, Sanofi Pasteur, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck, Novartis, and Wyeth.
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