Bibi Zahra, Nawaz Ahmed Daniyal, Al Kurbi Maha, Fakhroo Shahad, Ferih Khaled, Al-Jaber Noor, Alex Merin, Elawad Khalid H, Chivese Tawanda, Zughaier Susu M
College of Medicine, QU Health, Qatar University, Doha P.O. Box 2713, Qatar.
Health Protection, Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), Doha P.O. Box 26555, Qatar.
Vaccines (Basel). 2023 Oct 5;11(10):1567. doi: 10.3390/vaccines11101567.
Despite the availability of a highly efficacious vaccine, varicella outbreaks are still being reported globally. In this study, we evaluated the real-world effectiveness of varicella vaccination among children between the ages of 1 and 18 years old during the period 2017 to 2019 in Qatar.
A matched case-control study was conducted that included all reported varicella-infected children who visited the primary healthcare system in Qatar from January 2017 to December 2019. The cases were children under the age of 18 years who were clinically diagnosed with varicella. The controls were of the same age, who visited the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) during 2017-2019 with a skin rash where varicella infection was ruled out. The data on varicella vaccination for each participant were obtained from the electronic database in the PHCC during the study period.
We included 862 cases of varicella and 5454 matched controls, with a median age of 8 years (IQR 3-12); 47.4% were female and almost 50% were of Qatari nationality. The year 2019 had the highest varicella infection count with a total of 416 cases. The cases were less likely to be vaccinated against varicella, with approximately a quarter (25.6%) of cases and 36.7% of the controls having either one or two doses of the vaccine ( < 0.001). Compared to not being vaccinated, a single dose vaccination showed a 56% reduction in the odds of varicella infection [OR 0.44, 95% CI: 0.34-0.55; < 0.000], and a two-dose vaccination showed an 86% reduction in the odds of varicella infection [OR 0.13, 95% CI: 0.06-0.29; < 0.000].
In this multicultural setting, a two-dose varicella vaccination shows reasonable protection against varicella infection.
尽管有高效疫苗可用，但全球仍有水痘疫情报告。在本研究中，我们评估了2017年至2019年期间卡塔尔1至18岁儿童水痘疫苗接种的实际效果。
开展了一项匹配病例对照研究，纳入2017年1月至2019年12月期间前往卡塔尔初级医疗保健系统就诊的所有报告感染水痘的儿童。病例为临床诊断为水痘的18岁以下儿童。对照为年龄相同、在2017 - 2019年期间因皮疹前往初级卫生保健公司（PHCC）就诊且排除水痘感染的儿童。在研究期间，从PHCC的电子数据库获取每位参与者的水痘疫苗接种数据。
我们纳入了862例水痘病例和5454例匹配对照，中位年龄为8岁（四分位间距3 - 12岁）；47.4%为女性，近50%为卡塔尔国籍。2019年水痘感染病例数最高，共416例。病例接种水痘疫苗的可能性较小，约四分之一（25.6%）的病例和36.7%的对照接种了一剂或两剂疫苗（<0.001）。与未接种疫苗相比，单剂疫苗接种使水痘感染几率降低了56%[比值比（OR）0.44，95%置信区间（CI）：0.34 - 0.55；<0.000]，两剂疫苗接种使水痘感染几率降低了86%[OR 0.13，95%CI：0.06 - 0.29；<0.000]。
在这种多元文化环境中，两剂水痘疫苗接种对水痘感染显示出合理的保护作用。
