Adaptive vaccination strategies, based on age patterns of hospitalizations and deaths monitored in real-time during the early stages of a pandemic, outperform seasonal influenza vaccination allocation strategies, according to findings reported Dec. 3 by researchers, including two from Arizona State University, in the online journal PLoS ONE.
Using data from the A(H1N1) influenza outbreak in Mexico earlier this year, the authors conclude that a modeling approach that targets specific age groups for vaccinations, could help countries develop policies to mitigate the impact of ongoing and secondary pandemic waves.
"These new data shed light on which age groups are at high risk of infection and transmission during a pandemic influenza outbreak. Unlike seasonal vaccination strategies that target young children and seniors, our adaptive strategy based on early epidemiological data prioritized the young and adults between the ages of 20 and 59 years, which was based on the pattern of hospitalizations and deaths during the Mexican pandemic outbreak," says mathematical epidemiologist Gerardo Chowell-Puente, an assistant professor in the School of Human Evolution and Social Change in ASU's College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.