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. 2016 Sep 22;21(38):30348.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.38.30348.

Effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccine for adults and children in preventing laboratory-confirmed influenza in primary care in the United Kingdom: 2015/16 end-of-season results

Richard Pebody  1 , Fiona Warburton, Joanna Ellis, Nick Andrews, Alison Potts, Simon Cottrell, Jillian Johnston, Arlene Reynolds, Rory Gunson, Catherine Thompson, Monica Galiano, Chris Robertson, Rachel Byford, Naomh Gallagher, Mary Sinnathamby, Ivelina Yonova, Sameera Pathirannehelage, Matthew Donati, Catherine Moore, Simon de Lusignan, Jim McMenamin, Maria Zambon
Affiliations

Effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccine for adults and children in preventing laboratory-confirmed influenza in primary care in the United Kingdom: 2015/16 end-of-season results

Richard Pebody et al. Euro Surveill. .

Abstract

The United Kingdom (UK) is in the third season of introducing universal paediatric influenza vaccination with a quadrivalent live attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV). The 2015/16 season in the UK was initially dominated by influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and then influenza of B/Victoria lineage, not contained in that season's adult trivalent inactivated influenza vaccine (IIV). Overall adjusted end-of-season vaccine effectiveness (VE) was 52.4% (95% confidence interval (CI): 41.0-61.6) against influenza-confirmed primary care consultation, 54.5% (95% CI: 41.6-64.5) against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 and 54.2% (95% CI: 33.1-68.6) against influenza B. In 2-17 year-olds, adjusted VE for LAIV was 57.6% (95% CI: 25.1 to 76.0) against any influenza, 81.4% (95% CI: 39.6-94.3) against influenza B and 41.5% (95% CI: -8.5 to 68.5) against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09. These estimates demonstrate moderate to good levels of protection, particularly against influenza B in children, but relatively less against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09. Despite lineage mismatch in the trivalent IIV, adults younger than 65 years were still protected against influenza B. These results provide reassurance for the UK to continue its influenza immunisation programme planned for 2016/17.

Keywords: immunisation; influenza; vaccines.

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Conflict of interest statement

MD declares lecture fees and travel grant/ conference fees from Sanofi-Pasteur MSD in 2016; SdeL declares no direct conflict of interest, however University of Surrey has received grant funding from two Innovative Medicine Initiatives programmes ADVANCE (SdeL is a work package lead) and FLUCOP. Surrey has also received grant funding from GSK to explore the feasibility of collecting European Medicine Agency listed influenza brand-specific side effects in near real time, SdeL is PI.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Specimen inclusion and exclusion criteria, end-of-season 2015/16 influenza vaccine effectiveness evaluation, United Kingdom, 1 October 2015–1 May 2016 (n = 5,811)
Figure 2
Figure 2
Phylogenetic tree of the haemagglutinin genes of sentinel influenza B isolates, United Kingdom, October 2015–May 2016 (n = 324)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

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    1. Pebody R, Warburton F, Ellis J, Andrews N, Potts A, Cottrell S, et al. Effectiveness of seasonal influenza vaccine in preventing laboratory-confirmed influenza in primary care in the United Kingdom: 2015/16 mid-season results. Euro Surveill. 2016;21(13):30179. 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2016.21.13.30179 - DOI - PubMed

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