Background: Infants <6 months of age are too young to receive influenza vaccine, despite being at high risk for severe influenza-related complications.

Methods: To examine the effectiveness of maternal influenza vaccination in preventing influenza in their infants, we conducted a prospective cohort study of 3441 infants born at participating hospitals before the 2013-2014 influenza season. At the time of recruitment, their mothers completed a questionnaire about influenza vaccination status for the 2013-2014 season. A follow-up survey was conducted after the end of the 2013-2014 season to collect information regarding influenza diagnosis and hospitalization among infants.

Results: During the 2013-2014 influenza season, 71 infants (2%) had influenza diagnosed, and 13 infants (0.4%) were hospitalized with influenza. Maternal influenza vaccination (especially prenatal vaccination) decreased the odds of influenza among infants. The effectiveness of prenatal vaccination was 61% (95% confidence interval, 16%-81%), whereas that of postpartum vaccination was 53% (-28%-83%). Although maternal influenza vaccination was also associated with a decreased odds of influenza-related hospitalization among infants, vaccine effectiveness (73%) did not reach statistical significance, owing to the limited number of infants hospitalized because of influenza.

Conclusions: The present findings indicated that pregnant women and postpartum women should receive influenza vaccination to protect their infants.

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http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5853312PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jix629DOI Listing

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