It’s influenza season and what better time to share two new studies that are well worth knowing about. The first of these by Robison et al.(10.1542/peds.2017-0516) addresses what has happened since withdrawal of live-attenuated influenza vaccine (LAIV) last year and the recommendation that only injectable influenza vaccine (IIV)be used. Would it lessen the number of children vaccinated and decrease flu immunization rates overall? The authors used the immunization registry in Oregon and compared flu vaccine rates in 2012-13 with those in 2016-17. They also looked at those who received LAIV and IIV in 2015-16 to see if there were changes in the numbers who returned for vaccination in 2016-17. The good news is that there were no significant changes in vaccine rates between 2015-16 and 2016-17 and while those who got IIV in 2015-16 were slightly more likely to return, this difference was not clinically significant compared to those who got LAIV the year before. Since the new flu recommendations for this year are essentially the same as last and the LAIV continues to not be recommended, this study is helpful and should encourage you to continue to get all your patients in for flu vaccine this year, just as you did last.
But what if influenza does occur to a child in your practice and results in a hospitalization? If severe and oral or inhaled therapies are ineffective, intravenous zanamivir is a treatment option to consider or is it? Bradley et al. (10.1542/peds.2016-2727) share with us in a second study on flu, the results of a phase II open-label, multicenter, single-arm study assessing the safety of investigational IV zanamivir for children hospitalized with flu. In addition to safety outcomes, clinical outcomes were also reviewed. The good news is that the safety profile looks quite favorable in this study and while there were some treatment-emergent adverse events, a few quite serious, they were not drug-related but involved other aspects of a child’s treatment regimen. In addition, the majority of the 71 children enrolled in this study showed good clinical improvement with this drug. While zanamivir continues to be evaluated, it is worth knowing about as is the vaccine data in the first study described above. With both you’ll be up to date and know when it comes to learning more about influenza, our journal is there to tell you what’s hot and what’(s-not).
