Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE): Lyophilized CVD 103-HgR Vaccine Among Children and Adolescents Aged 2–17 Years
MMWR recomm. rep; 71 (2), 2022
Publication year: 2022
A Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) review of the evidence for benefits and harms for use of lyophilized CVD 103-HgR vaccine (CVD 103-HgR) among children and adolescents aged 2–17 years was presented to the Advisory Committee for Immunization Practices (ACIP) on January 12, 2022. GRADE evidence type indicates the certainty of estimates from the available body of evidence, ranging from type 1 (high certainty) to type 4 (very low certainty).1 The policy question was “Should ACIP recommend lyophilized CVD 103-HgR vaccine for children and adolescents aged 2–17 years traveling to an area with active cholera transmission?” (Table 1).
The potential benefits pre-specified by the ACIP Cholera Vaccine Work Group were moderate to severe cholera diarrhea (critical) and cholera diarrhea of any severity (critical). The two pre-specified harms were serious adverse events (SAEs) (critical) and non-serious adverse events (important) (Tables 1 and 2). The work group conducted a systematic review of evidence on the benefits and harms of CVD 103-HgR among children and adolescents aged 2–17 years old. Studies identified were assessed using a modified GRADE approach.1
Regarding benefits, no studies of CVD 103-HgR in children and adolescents aged 2–17 years directly assessed vaccine efficacy or effectiveness against cholera diarrhea. The available data from randomized control trials (RCTs) demonstrated that, compared with placebo, vaccination was associated with a higher risk of serum vibriocidal antibody (SVA) seroconversion (pooled relative risk [RR]: 65.99, 95% CI: 9.43–461.69; pooled absolute risk [AR]: 97,000 more per 100,000, 95% CI: 12,582 more to 100,000 more). The evidence certainty was downgraded for serious imprecision, and the final level of certainty was type 2 (moderate) for both benefits.
Regarding harms, the available data from RCTs demonstrated the vaccine and placebo arms had a similar risk of serious adverse events (pooled RR: 0.16, 95% CI 0.01–2.53; pooled AR: 1,120 fewer per 100,000, 95% CI: 1,320 fewer to 2,040 more); no serious adverse events were judged to be related to the vaccine among 468 recipients aged 2–17 years within 6 months of vaccination. The risk of non-serious adverse events was similar between the vaccine and placebo groups (pooled RR: 1.09, 95% CI 0.86–1.38; pooled AR: 4,560 more per 100,000, 95% CI: 7,093 fewer to 19,253 more). For both harms, the evidence certainty was downgraded for very serious imprecision, and the final certainty was type 3 (low).