Efficacy of Live Attenuated and Inactivated Influenza Vaccines in Schoolchildren and Their Unvaccinated Contacts in Novgorod, Russia

• Published in: The Journal of infectious diseases Vol. 168; no. 4; pp. 881 - 887
• Main Authors: Rudenko, L. G., Slepushkin, A. N., Monto, A. S., Kendal, A. P., Grigorieva, E. P., Burtseva, E. P., Rekstin, A. R., Beljaev, A. L., Bragina, V. E., Cox, N., Ghendon, Y. Z., Alexandrova, G. I.Alexandrova
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Chicago, IL The University of Chicago Press 01-10-1993; University of Chicago Press
• Subjects: Adolescent; Attenuated vaccines; Child; Diseases; H3N2 subtype influenza A virus; Hemagglutination Inhibition Tests; Humans; Inactivated vaccines; influenza A virus; Influenza A virus - immunology; influenza B virus; Influenza vaccines; Influenza Vaccines - adverse effects; Influenza, Human - immunology; Influenza, Human - prevention & control; Major Articles; Placebos; Prevalence; Regression Analysis; Respiratory Tract Diseases - epidemiology; Russia; School age children; Species Specificity; Transcriptional regulatory elements; Vaccination; Vaccines, Attenuated - adverse effects; Viruses; Russia; Russia, Novgorod
• ISSN: 0022-1899; 1537-6613
• DOI: 10.1093/infdis/168.4.881

Children aged 7–14 years in Novgorod, Russia, were given Russian live cold-adapted or inactivated influenza vaccines or placebo over a 2-year period. Schools were randomly assigned as a whole to one of the preparations. In the first year, the vaccines were bivalent, containing types A (H3N2) and A (H1N1) components. In the second year, the vaccines also contained a type B component. In the first year, all viruses isolated were type A (H3N2); in the second, about three-quarters of the isolates were type B and the rest type A (H1N1). During both years, the vaccines protected the vaccinated children. Where significant differences existed, the live attenuated vaccine was more protective than the inactivated. Vaccination rates in schools in which live attenuated vaccines had been used were inversely related to illness rates of staffand unvaccinated children, suggesting that viral transmission had been reduced by the vaccine.