2023/24 mid-season influenza and Omicron XBB.1.5 vaccine effectiveness estimates from the Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN)

The 2023/24 influenza season in Canada has been characterized by more typical seasonality and A(H1N1)pdm09 subtype predominance, with influenza A(H3N2) and SARS-CoV-2 viruses co-circulating. Updated 2023/24 multivalent influenza and monovalent COVID-19 vaccines became available through publicly-funded immunization campaigns beginning October 2023, with their co-administration encouraged to facilitate uptake. The Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN) undertook mid-season estimation of 2023/24 vaccine effectiveness (VE) against influenza and COVID-19, including detailed whole genome sequencing characterization of these highly changeable viruses in relation to their respective vaccine components. Findings and factors possibly influencing VE estimates will be discussed. Presenter: For the past 25 years, Dr. Danuta Skowronski has led the Influenza and Emerging Respiratory Pathogens Team at the British Columbia Centre for Disease Control (BCCDC) where she has informed surveillance, research and program/policy recommendations for influenza, and more recently COVID-19. She is credited with earliest co-development of the test-negative design (TND), a methodology now used globally to monitor seasonal influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE), and more recently also COVID-19 VE. As national lead of the Canadian Sentinel Practitioner Surveillance Network (SPSN), including community-based outpatient sites in British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and Quebec for the past 15 years and with 200 scientific publications, Dr. Skowronski has contributed major insights into factors influencing vaccine performance against highly changeable viruses.

Mediasite Presenter

2/20/2024 8:00:00 PM