Researchers have innovated an inactivated quadrivalent influenza vaccine (QIV) that is effective in preventing influenza A, B in children aged 3 to 8 years, according to a study. The vaccine proved to have about 59 percent efficacy for influenza of any severity and 74 percent for moderate-to-severe influenza.Researchers at icddr,b, GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals and collaborators in several countries conducted the study funded by GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals.
The QIV study was conducted among 5,220 children in several countries spread over three continents. Healthy children were recruited from 15 centres in Bangladesh, the Dominican Republic, Honduras, Lebanon, Panama, the Philippines, Thailand, and Turkey.
The total vaccinated cohort included 2,584 children in the QIV group and 2,584 in the control group. The children were randomly assigned to receive the QIV (0.5-ml dose) or hepatitis A vaccine (Havrix, 0.5-ml dose), as a control.
Both vaccines were manufactured by GlaxoSmithKline vaccines. The findings of the multinational trial study, which aimed to assess the efficacy of the QIV in children, were recently published in the New England Journal of Medicine.
The study showed QIV efficacy of 55 percent against influenza of any severity. In study, the efficacy of QIV was higher against moderate-to-severe disease (approximately 70 percent overall and in each of the two age groups).
Most breakthrough cases in the QIV group were of mild severity. The QIV was associated with an 80 percent reduction in the rate of lower respiratory tract illness (the most common serious outcome of influenza) and a 70 percent reduction in the rate of body temperature above 39°C, as compared with he control vaccine. “The results from the QIV study shows promise
to provide better protection for more children globally from influenza compared to currently used trivalent influenza vaccines (TIVs),” said Dr K Zaman, senior scientist with icddr,b’s Centre for Child & Adolescent Health and principal investigator of the Bangladesh site.
Influenza is a viral infection that normally lasts for about a week. Symptoms include high fever, muscle ache, headache, sore throat and rhinitis. The incidence of influenza is particularly high among children, especially during the influenza season.
The virus spreads very easily from person to person through inhalation of small particles and droplets discharged by virus infected persons when they
sneeze or cough. The infection is also known to lead to severe complications resulting in pneumonia and death. – UNB
