The investigation used a case-control design. The cases were 179 vaccine-eligible patients hospitalized for COVID-19, ages 12-18 years; the 285 controls, matched for age, tested negative for COVID-19 or had asymptomatic infections and were hospitalized for other reasons.
All patients were hospitalized in 16 U.S. states from June 1, 2021, to September 30, 2021, a period when pediatric hospitalizations were surging, especially in the southern U.S. where 61 percent of the cases were enrolled.
Of the 179 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, only 3 percent were vaccinated, versus 33 percent of controls. Of the adolescents hospitalized for COVID-19, 43 percent were admitted to an intensive care unit, 16 percent required life support, and two died.
All patients requiring ICU care or life support, including the two who died, were unvaccinated. Of the 3 percent of vaccinated adolescents hospitalized for COVID-19, none developed a critical illness.
Another large study of 12- to 18-year-olds in Israel, led by the Clalit Research Institute focused on COVID-19 infection in general. Using health record databases, the investigators compared 94,354 Pfizer-vaccinated adolescents with 94,354 matched unvaccinated controls.
Fully vaccinated adolescents had a 93 percent decreased risk for symptomatic COVID-19 and a 90 percent decreased risk for documented infection.The findings are published as a letter in The New England Journal of Medicine.
Both teams of researchers hope the new data will help ease vaccine hesitancy among adolescents.
Source: Medindia
