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Multicenter Study
. 2025 Mar;19(3):e70081.
doi: 10.1111/irv.70081.

Effectiveness of the XBB.1.5 COVID-19 Vaccines Against SARS-CoV-2 Hospitalisation Among Adults Aged ≥ 65 Years During the BA.2.86/JN.1 Predominant Period, VEBIS Hospital Study, Europe, November 2023 to May 2024

Liliana Antunes  1 , Madelyn Rojas-Castro  1 , Marcos Lozano  2   3 , Iván Martínez-Baz  3   4 , Isabel Leroux-Roels  5   6 , Maria-Louise Borg  7 , Beatrix Oroszi  8 , Margaret Fitzgerald  9 , Ralf Dürrwald  10 , Ligita Jancoriene  11 , Ausenda Machado  12 , Goranka Petrović  13 , Mihaela Lazar  14 , Lenka Součková  15 , Sabrina Bacci  16 , Jennifer Howard  1 , Nuno Verdasca  17 , Luca Basile  18 , Jesús Castilla  3   4 , Silke Ternest  5 , Aušra Džiugytė  7 , Gergő Túri  8 , Roisin Duffy  9 , Carolin Hackmann  10 , Monika Kuliese  19 , Verónica Gomez  12 , Zvjezdana Lovrić Makarić  13 , Alexandru Marin  20 , Petr Husa  15 , Nathalie Nicolay  16 , Angela M C Rose  1 ; VEBIS SARI VE network team
Collaborators, Affiliations
Multicenter Study

Effectiveness of the XBB.1.5 COVID-19 Vaccines Against SARS-CoV-2 Hospitalisation Among Adults Aged ≥ 65 Years During the BA.2.86/JN.1 Predominant Period, VEBIS Hospital Study, Europe, November 2023 to May 2024

Liliana Antunes et al. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

We estimated the effectiveness of the adapted monovalent XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccines against PCR-confirmed SARS-CoV-2 hospitalisation during the BA.2.86/JN.1 lineage-predominant period using a multicentre test-negative case-control study in Europe. We included older adults (≥ 65 years) hospitalised with severe acute respiratory infection from November 2023 to May 2024. Vaccine effectiveness was 46% at 14-59 days and 34% at 60-119 days, with no effect thereafter. The XBB.1.5 COVID-19 vaccines conferred protection against BA.2.86 lineage hospitalisation in the first 4 months post-vaccination.

Keywords: case–control study; elderly; severe acute respiratory infections (SARI); test‐negative design; vaccine effectiveness.

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Conflict of interest statement

Isabel Leroux‐Roels declares that her institution received funding from GSK, Janssen Vaccines, Moderna, MSD, Icosavax, Curevac, Moderna, Osivax, ICON Genetics and OSE Immunotherapeutics for the conduct of vaccine trials; from Janssen Vaccines and MSD for consulting services; and from Janssen Vaccines for participation on a data safety monitoring board and advisory board. All of these honoraria were paid to her institution.

Aukse Mickiene has received a grant for the Independent Investigator Initiated Research (Project Code/PO/Tracking Number WI236259; Grant ID#53233947); Pfizer R&D Investigator‐Initiated Research program (https://www.pfizer.com/science/collaboration/investigator‐initiated‐research) for the scientific project ‘A prospective study on the long‐term outcome and pathogenesis of tick‐borne encephalitis’, and a Grant from the European Society of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID) Study Group for Infectious Diseases of the Brain (ESGIB); sponsorship for participation in the international scientific conferences by MSD, Pfizer, Abbvie and Janssen; and payments for lectures in local scientific conferences and consultation fees from GSK, Sanofi, Pfizer, E‐visit.

Ligita Jancoriene has received honoraria fees for lectures from Pfizer, Viatris and Swixx Biopharma.

All other authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Countries and sites included in the VEBIS hospital network, Europe, 22 November 2023–18 May 2024. VEBIS: Vaccine Effectiveness, Burden and Impact Studies Twelve participating sites: Belgium (BE), Czechia (CZ), Germany (DE), Spain (ES), Croatia (HR), Hungary (HU), Ireland (IE), Lithuania (LT), Malta (MT), Navarre region, Spain (NA), Portugal (PT) and Romania (RO). Included in this analysis: BE, DE, ES, HU, IE, LT, MT, NA and PT.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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