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HealthDay News — Vaccinations reduce the incidence of SARS-CoV-2 among adolescents, according to a research brief published online February 22 in Pediatrics.
Pavan V. Thakkar, from the Duke Clinical Research Institute in Durham, North Carolina, and colleagues examined the impact of COVID-19 vaccination on SARS-CoV-2 incidence and within-school transmission among sixth- to 12th-grade students in a prospective cohort study of 1128 students from August 1 to November 12, 2021.
The researchers found that as of November 2021, 73.5 and 26.5% of students were vaccinated and unvaccinated, respectively. During the study period, 20 (6.7%) unvaccinated students reported an infection (80% symptomatic) compared with 7 (0.8%) vaccinated students (71% symptomatic). Only 2 of the 27 infections were classified as within-school transmissions; both of these infections resulted from unmasked exposures to unvaccinated index cases. The incidence rates of documented infection and symptomatic infection were increased 8.2- and 9.2-fold for unvaccinated vs vaccinated students. The unadjusted vaccine effectiveness was 87.8 and 89.1% against documented and symptomatic infection, respectively.
“In this real-world prospective cohort study of 1128 students, vaccinations substantially reduced SARS-CoV-2 incidence among adolescents and, along with other mitigation measures, kept students safely in school during a variant-driven community surge,” the authors write.
Two authors disclosed financial ties to the pharmaceutical industry.
