This fact sheet offers a general overview of a large-scale, cluster-randomized trial that PATH is conducting in collaboration with the Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement and Institut Pasteur de Dakar to evaluate the total effectiveness of inactivated influenza vaccine among children in Senegal. To date, the study is the largest influenza vaccine trial ever conducted in Africa, having vaccinated nearly 8,000 children in the Fatick District of Senegal in May and June, 2009. Enrolled children received either a trivalent influenza vaccine or a beneficial control vaccine, inactivated polio vaccine. In addition to evaluating the protection afforded to vaccinated children, investigators will evaluate the extent to which just immunizing children, the suspected main transmitters of influenza, effectively reduces disease in the rest of the community. By utilizing active surveillance in a demographically well-defined population, the study will enable the calculation of influenza rates, which will help to define the burden of influenza, something almost totally unknown in tropical regions in Africa. Finally, the study's surveillance component will help strengthen Senegal's already exemplary national influenza surveillance program.

Author(s): PATH

Published: 2009

Resource types: PATH resource; Fact sheet

Diseases: Influenza

Topics: Childhood immunization; Disease burden and surveillance; Disease/vaccine specific information

Regions: Africa