Pediatric Influenza Vaccine Effectiveness Against Emergency Visits and Hospitalization in Canada: 2024-2025 and 2025-2026 seasons

Influenza vaccination in Canadian children (6 months to <18 years) reduced laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated ED visits by 53% in 2024–2025 and 57% in 2025–2026.

• Why it matters: Canadian evidence on how well pediatric influenza vaccines prevent acute care use is limited, especially for ED visits and hospitalizations across consecutive seasons.
• What they did: Using a test-negative case-control design in 14 tertiary pediatric hospitals (SPRINT KIDS), symptomatic children were tested for influenza and VE was estimated with multivariable logistic regression.
• The result: VE against hospitalization was 33% (95% CI, 16%, 47%) in 2024–2025 and 48% (95% CI, 33%, 59%) in 2025–2026, with lower protection for influenza A than B.

AI summary of the abstract · may contain errors · not medical advice · read the paper.