title: Evidence of homosubtypic but not heterosubtypic immunity in young children following wild-type influenza illness.
abstract: The effect of subtype-specific influenza illness in young children on the probability of influenza illness in the following year was analyzed for placebo recipients in four 2-year vaccine efficacy studies. There was evidence of homosubtypic protection but no evidence of heterosubtypic protection; however, a moderate-to-low level of heterosubtypic protection could not be ruled out. This analysis supports previous observations that children do not develop lasting, clinically significant heterosubtypic protection after influenza illness.
authors.affiliation: Medical and Scientific Affairs, Gaithersburg, MD, USA. ambrosec@medimmune.com
authors.forename: Christopher S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Ambrose
authors.forename: Xionghua
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D009975:Orthomyxoviridae / Q000276:immunology*; D013997:Time Factors