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Preventing influenza in younger children
S Esposito1, C Tagliabue, L Tagliaferri
1Pediatric Clinic 1, Department of Pathophysiology and Transplantation, Università degli Studi di Milano, Fondazione IRCCS Ca' Granda Ospedale Maggiore Policlinico, Milan, Italy. susanna.esposito@unimi.it
Insights
Influenza significantly impacts children, leading to severe illness and deaths, even in healthy ones. Further research is needed to confirm the effectiveness of new influenza vaccines for widespread childhood immunization.
Area of Science:
- Pediatrics
- Immunology
- Public Health
Background:
- Influenza is a highly prevalent respiratory illness in infants and children, with annual attack rates ranging from 23% to 48%.
- While severe influenza cases are more common in children with chronic conditions, healthy children under five years old also experience significant morbidity, including hospitalizations and mortality.
- Social and economic burdens associated with childhood influenza are substantial, yet many European nations hesitate to include influenza vaccination in routine childhood immunization schedules due to concerns about vaccine efficacy in young children.
Purpose of the Study:
- To address the ongoing debate regarding the efficacy of influenza vaccination in young children.
- To evaluate the potential of novel influenza vaccines and administration routes, such as intradermal delivery, for improving immune response in pediatric populations.
- To inform recommendations on universal influenza vaccination strategies for infants and young children.
Main Methods:
- Epidemiological studies analyzing influenza attack rates and healthcare utilization in children.
- Evaluation of immune responses elicited by existing and novel influenza vaccine formulations.
- Assessment of intradermal versus intramuscular vaccine administration in pediatric cohorts.
Main Results:
- Influenza poses a significant health risk to children, including healthy individuals, leading to increased medical visits, prescriptions, hospitalizations, and deaths.
- Existing influenza vaccines may face challenges in eliciting a robust protective immune response in the youngest age groups.
- Emerging vaccine technologies, including multi-antigen vaccines and intradermal administration, show promise for enhancing pediatric influenza vaccine efficacy.
Conclusions:
- Influenza vaccination in early childhood warrants further investigation to establish optimal strategies.
- Newer vaccine formulations and administration methods may offer improved protection against influenza in infants and young children.
- Evidence is needed to support universal influenza vaccination recommendations for the first years of life, specifying the most effective vaccine types.
Abstract:
Influenza is common in infants and children: attack rates vary from 23% to 48% each year during inter-pandemic periods, and are even higher during pandemics. Severe cases occur more frequently in children with underlying chronic diseases; however, epidemiological studies have clearly shown that influenza also causes an excess of medical examinations, drug prescriptions and hospitalizations in otherwise healthy children (particularly those aged <5 years), as well as a considerable number of paediatric deaths. Childhood influenza also has a number of social and economic consequences. However, many European health authorities are still reluctant to include influenza vaccinations in their national vaccination programmes for healthy children because, among other things, there are doubts concerning their real ability to evoke a protective immune response, especially in children in the first years of life. New hope for the solution of these problems has come from the introduction of vaccines containing more antigens and the possibility of intradermal administration. However, further studies are needed to establish whether universal influenza vaccination in the first years of life should be recommended, and with which vaccine.
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