Influenza vaccine effectiveness in Ireland during two influenza seasons, 2022/23 and 2023/24
European Journal of Public Health·
- DOI
- 10.1093/eurpub/ckae144.1924
- PMID
- —
- PMCID
- —
- OpenAlex
- W4403816677
- Study type
- Case-control study
- Publisher
- Oxford University Press (OUP)
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
Sustaining routine immunization initiatives appears capable of reducing outpatient utilization for influenza-related illnesses, with notably stronger protective signals observed when administering live attenuated formulations to school-aged youth.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
What is the protective capacity of seasonal immunization against primary care visits for laboratory-confirmed influenza-associated respiratory illness in Ireland across the 2022/23 and 2023/24 periods?
Study design
Researchers applied a test-negative case-control framework operating inside a country-wide primary care monitoring system to contrast immunization records between PCR-positive patients and PCR-negative individuals presenting with comparable respiratory complaints.
Population and setting
The analysis focused on individuals seeking outpatient care for acute respiratory symptoms in Ireland, with specific attention to pediatric cohorts and adults meeting established age or clinical risk criteria.
Main findings
Immunization showed moderate protection against clinic attendance for influenza-linked respiratory conditions, yielding point estimates between thirty-seven and forty-two percent for the broader group and climbing to sixty-seven percent among younger participants during the second evaluated period.
Public-health relevance
Sustaining routine immunization initiatives appears capable of reducing outpatient utilization for influenza-related illnesses, with notably stronger protective signals observed when administering live attenuated formulations to school-aged youth.
Important limitations
The reliance on a targeted primary care monitoring network may restrict broader demographic representation, while several subgroup confidence intervals displayed considerable width or included null values.
GIDS interpretation
This report supplies seasonal efficacy metrics that may function as contextual benchmarks for evaluating regional immunization programs, without establishing real-time detection thresholds or operational surveillance triggers.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 9 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.