Daily Dose: Flu Vaccination May Protect Against RSV in Children

Patient Care brings primary care clinicians a lot of medical news every day—it’s easy to miss an important study. The Daily Dose provides a concise summary of one of the website's leading stories you may not have seen.

On July 14, 2023, we reported on a study published in the journal Vaccine that suggested vaccination against influenza in young children may have a protective effect aganist hospitalization for respiratory syncitial virus (RSV).

The study

Investigators in Australia used longitudinal data for all children in the western part of the country who were born between 2000 and 2012 including sociodemographic and medical information on children and their parents. Data on vaccination included date, type, and number of doses for children from birth to age 7 years. The primary outcome of interest was annual hospitalizations for laboratory-confirmed RSV among children who received annual influenza vaccination.

The findings

Hospitalization for RSV decreased when a child received their influenza vaccine. A rate reduction of 2.27 (95% CI, –3.26 to –1.28) per 1000 population was found in children younger than 2 years and a reduction of 0.53 (95% CI, –1.04 to –0.02) per 1000 in children aged 2 to 7 years.

Conclusion

The researchers concluded that the preschool-funded influenza vaccine program was able to reduce hospitalizations for RSV by 793 hospitalizations in children younger than 2 years and 400 hospitalizations in children aged 2 to 7 years from 2008 to 2013.

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