In India, a single subcutaneous dose of SA 14-14-2 JE vaccine offers effectiveness of 72% however, monitoring the efficacy is required post two dose schedule according to a new study.

Japanese encephalitis (JE) is an acute central nervous system infection caused by a mosquito-borne flavivirus. Worldwide, almost 68,000 cases are documented every year and predominantly this condition affects children. JE is also quite common in India. While treatment for JE is lacking, availability of the vaccines help in combating the problem.

In India, mouse brain-derived inactivated JE vaccine was used earlier, but failed to fulfil the national requirement. Following that, another vaccine, the SA 14-14-2 live attenuated JE vaccine has shown a protective effectiveness of 96% after 5 years, but  there has been a lack of enough Indian data to back this claim.

To test efficacy of SA 14-14-2 live attenuated JE vaccine, a community-based 1:4 individually-matched case-control study was conducted among children aged 1–15 years, residents of JE-endemic districts in Uttar Pradesh (UP) and Assam states in India. The study was conducted to assess the efficacy of the live attenuated single dose JE vaccine received by the children in the year 2006 to 2008, during mass vaccination campaigns among children aged 1–15 years. Researchers assessed 149 cases along with matched 596 controls.

Article: Effectiveness of Japanese encephalitis SA 14-14-2 live attenuated vaccine among Indian children: Retrospective 1:4 matched case-control study. Tandale BV, et al. J Infect Public Health. 2018