Monovalent vaccine protected Chinese schoolchildren

Wu J. N Engl J Med. 2010;363:2416-2423.

A monovalent H1N1 vaccine effectively protected schoolchildren and adults against the pandemic strain of influenza after a mass vaccination campaign in Beijing.

The Panflu.1 vaccine (Sinovac Biotech), a monovalent split-virion vaccine of 15 mcg of hemagglutinin antigen without adjuvant, appeared to reduce the incidence of the pandemic strain of influenza in schoolchildren and had a safety profile resembling that seen with seasonal influenza vaccine, according to a report from the Beijing CDC.

After the vaccine became available in September 2009, China’s H1N1 Influenza Joint Prevention and Control Panel decided to recommend vaccination of the performers and staffers of the 60th National Day Celebration, which was scheduled for Oct. 1, 2009. The celebration was a massive public gathering, and most of the 95,000 participants were students from primary and middle schools or colleges in Beijing.

Between Oct. 9 and Nov. 15, 2009, the incidence of confirmed cases of 2009 H1N1 virus infection per 100,000 students was 35.9, or nine of 25,037, among vaccinated students and 281.4, or 687 of 244,091, among unvaccinated students, for a vaccine effectiveness of 87.3%.

The researchers said 193 vaccine recipients had adverse events. Hospital-based active surveillance identified 362 cases of neurologic diseases within 10 weeks after the vaccination campaign; of those, 27 were Guillain-Barré syndrome, but none of those patients had been vaccinated.

The Beijing Municipal Health Bureau supported the study, and no financial support was received from the vaccine manufacturer.

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