Early season estimate of influenza vaccination effectiveness against influenza hospitalisation in children, Hong Kong, winter influenza season 2018/19

The winter 2018/19 influenza season in Hong Kong has been predominated by influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 as at January 2019. We enrolled 2,016 children in three public hospitals in Hong Kong between 2 September 2018 and 11 January 2019. Using the test-negative approach, we estimated high early season effectiveness of inactivated influenza vaccine against influenza A or B of 90% (95% confidence interval (CI): 80-95%) and 92% (95% CI: 82-96%) against influenza A(H1N1)pdm09.