Early season co-circulation of influenza A(H3N2) and B(Yamagata): interim estimates of 2017/18 vaccine effectiveness, Canada, January 2018.

Early season co-circulation of influenza A(H3N2) and B(Yamagata): interim estimates of 2017/18 vaccine effectiveness, Canada, January 2018.
Euro Surveill. 2018 Feb;23(5):
Authors: Skowronski DM, Chambers C, De Serres G, Dickinson JA, Winter AL, Hickman R, Chan T, Jassem AN, Drews SJ, Charest H, Gubbay JB, Bastien N, Li Y, Krajden M
Abstract
Using a test-negative design, we assessed interim vaccine effectiveness (VE) for the 2017/18 epidemic of co-circulating influenza A(H3N2) and B(Yamagata) viruses. Adjusted VE for influenza A(H3N2), driven by a predominant subgroup of clade 3C.2a viruses with T131K + R142K + R261Q substitutions, was low at 17% (95% confidence interval (CI): -14 to 40). Adjusted VE for influenza B was higher at 55% (95% CI: 38 to 68) despite prominent use of trivalent vaccine containing lineage-mismatched influenza B(Victoria) antigen, suggesting cross-lineage protection.
PMID: 29409570 [PubMed - in process]

Source: Euro Surveill - February 1, 2018 Category: Infectious Diseases Authors: Skowronski DM, Chambers C, De Serres G, Dickinson JA, Winter AL, Hickman R, Chan T, Jassem AN, Drews SJ, Charest H, Gubbay JB, Bastien N, Li Y, Krajden M Tags: Euro Surveill Source Type: research