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.
Keywords
Policy-making - influenza vaccine - children - vaccination program - economic analysis
- vaccine safety
