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Background: The historical Japanese influenza vaccination program targeted at schoolchildren provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the indirect benefits of vaccinating high-transmitter groups to mitigate disease burden among seniors. Here we characterize the indirect mortality benefits of vaccinating schoolchildren based on…

Background: The historical Japanese influenza vaccination program targeted at schoolchildren provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the indirect benefits of vaccinating high-transmitter groups to mitigate disease burden among seniors. Here we characterize the indirect mortality benefits of vaccinating schoolchildren based on data from Japan and the US.

Methods: We compared age-specific influenza-related excess mortality rates in Japanese seniors aged ≥65 years during the schoolchildren vaccination program (1978–1994) and after the program was discontinued (1995–2006). Indirect vaccine benefits were adjusted for demographic changes, socioeconomics and dominant influenza subtype; US mortality data were used as a control.

Results: We estimate that the schoolchildren vaccination program conferred a 36% adjusted mortality reduction among Japanese seniors (95%CI: 17–51%), corresponding to ∼1,000 senior deaths averted by vaccination annually (95%CI: 400–1,800). In contrast, influenza-related mortality did not change among US seniors, despite increasing vaccine coverage in this population.

Conclusions: The Japanese schoolchildren vaccination program was associated with substantial indirect mortality benefits in seniors.

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    Title
    • Influenza-Related Mortality Trends in Japanese and American Seniors: Evidence for the Indirect Mortality Benefits of Vaccinating Schoolchildren
    Contributors
    Date Created
    2011-11-07
    Resource Type
  • Text
    • Collections this item is in
    ASU Scholarship Showcase
    Identifier
    • Digital object identifier: 10.1371/journal.pone.0026282
    • International standard serial number
      1045-3830
    • International standard serial number
      1939-1560
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    • The article is published at http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0026282

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    Charu, V., Viboud, C., Simonsen, L., Sturm-Ramirez, K., Shinjoh, M., Chowell, G., . . . Sugaya, N. (2011). Influenza-Related Mortality Trends in Japanese and American Seniors: Evidence for the Indirect Mortality Benefits of Vaccinating Schoolchildren. PLoS ONE, 6(11). doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0026282

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