Literature update ViVa week 19-2026

1. Australia’s child flu vaccine slide is the real post-COVID warning This multicenter prospective test-negative surveillance study enrolled 8,762 influenza-positive hospitalizations and 10,955 influenza-negative controls in Australian children younger than 16 years across 12 sentinel hospitals from 2019 to 2024. Among cases, 25.0% were younger than 2 years, 38.4% had medical risk factors, 6.9% identified as First Nations children, 7.1% required ICU admission, and 0.32% died. Influenza activity collapsed during COVID-19 restrictions, with only 12 hospitalizations in 2020–2021 combined, then rebounded to 1,557 in 2022, 2,818 in 2023, and 2,310 in 2024. Antivirals were given to only 26.5% of cases. Vaccine coverage among eligible test-negative controls fell from 43.9% in 2019 to 19.6% in 2022, with persistently lower coverage through 2024 across states, ages, and comorbidity groups. Adjusted vaccine effectiveness remained strong overall at 65.6% (95% CI, 61.9%–69.0%), ranging from 56.3% in 2019 to 82.5% in 2023, and was significant across...