Assessment of seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness in patients from a central Italy reference hospital: pitfalls and intricacies from a pilot case-control study

Authors

  • Katleen de Gaetano Donati Catholic University, Rome
  • Simona Costanzo IRCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed, Pozzilli (IS)
  • Lara Campana Catholic University, Rome
  • Marco Olivieri PICOMED Research srl, CAMPOBASSO
  • Rosaria Santangelo Catholic University, Rome
  • Maurizio Sanguinetti Catholic University, Rome
  • Roberto Cauda Catholic University, Rome
  • Licia Iacoviello RCCS Istituto Neurologico Mediterraneo Neuromed, Pozzilli (IS)

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.2427/9157

Abstract

Objectives: Influenza vaccination protects high-risk populations from severe outcomes. We assessed the feasibility of testing influenza vaccine effectiveness against hospitalization with laboratory-confirmed influenza.

Methods: All hospitalized patients with influenza-like illness within 14 days, were swabbed. Cases were positive at RT-PCR for influenza A/B.

Results: AtRome “GemelliHospital” (Season 2011-2012) 104 patients were contacted and 62 recruited. Considering total sample and target group (n= 47, 76%), only 29% and 38% had been vaccinated. Eighteen patients were laboratory-confirmed for influenza.

Conclusions: RecruitedILI patients and prevalence of vaccinated subjects were less than expected. Larger numbers are warranted to study vaccine effectiveness against severe influenza outcomes.

 

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Published

2022-06-13

Issue

Vol. 11 No. 3 (2014)

Section

Original articles

License

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.