Affiliations: National Centre for Immunisation Research and
Surveillance, The Children's Hospital at Westmead, Westmead, NSW,
Australia | Sydney Medical School, The University of Sydney,
Sydney, NSW, Australia | Sydney School of Public Health, The University of
Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia | Sydney Emerging Infections and Biosecurity Institute,
Sydney, NSW, Australia
Note: [] Correspondence: Dr. J. Kevin Yin, National Centre for
Immunisation Research and Surveillance, The Children's Hospital at Westmead and
The University of Sydney, Sydney, NSW, Australia. NCIRS, The Children's
Hospital at Westmead, Locked Bag 4001, Westmead NSW 2145, Australia. Tel.: +61
2 9845 1232; Fax: +61 2 9845 1418; E-mail: [email protected]
Abstract: The disease burden of seasonal influenza in young children is
substantial. And yet only the USA, Canada, Finland and one state in Australia
currently have a routine influenza vaccine policy in place for young children.
Few countries seem keen to follow their lead. This paper reviews the evidence
required to inform a policy of universal paediatric vaccination; key features
include protective effect, economic impacts and the safety of influenza
vaccination in this age group. We found that i. there is insufficient data on
the protective effect of vaccinating infants aged 6–23 months, ii. there are
very few economic evaluations and most of the current published economic
evaluations involve modelling and were performed using data from a variety of
sources which are not setting specific, and iii. safety data have not been
specifically addressed by an in-depth separate systematic review. To better
inform relevant policy making, we suggest that interdisciplinary research,
(combining epidemiology and health economics at least), is required to fully
examine the protective effect, economic impacts and safety of influenza
vaccination in children aged 6–59 months. We also suggest that the safety data
on influenza vaccination in this age group should be assessed specifically by
an in-depth separate systematic review, using published and grey
literature.
