Policy document
National expert consensus recommendations on influenza vaccination in Saudi Arabia (2025).
Ashraf Al Amir, Abdullah Alshehri, Ali Al Barrak, Fayssal Farahat, Hala Joharjy et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This document presents expert consensus recommendations on influenza vaccination in Saudi Arabia, developed by 15 specialists across multiple health disciplines. The experts identified suboptimal vaccination uptake among children and adults as a key public health concern. Fifteen consensus statements were developed across nine domains, including vaccination timing, coverage rates, public confidence, healthcare worker engagement, and surveillance. The recommendations aim to improve influenza prevention and vaccination rates in the Saudi population.
Key points
- Influenza vaccination uptake is reported as suboptimal in both children and adults in Saudi Arabia
- Fifteen consensus statements were developed across nine key domains
- Key domains include disease monitoring, surveillance strengthening, optimizing vaccination timing, and enhancing vaccination coverage
- Recommendations address public confidence, healthcare worker engagement, and awareness of disease severity
- Integration of live-attenuated influenza vaccine into public health programs is recommended
Limitations
This is a consensus document based on expert opinion and a narrative literature review rather than an evaluation of specific interventions. The document does not provide empirical data on current vaccination rates, outcomes of implemented recommendations, or comparative effectiveness of different approaches.
Abstract
In Saudi Arabia, influenza is considered a primary public health concern. Preventative measures include vaccination, which is reported as suboptimal in terms of uptake by both children and adults. To address this, two multidisciplinary expert workshops brought together, 15 specialists from family medicine, infectious diseases, pediatrics, pulmonology, epidemiology, and public health to Riyadh on 26th October 2024 and 28th June 2025 with the aim of developing recommendations on influenza vaccination tailored to the Saudi context. During the two meetings, the experts shared insights and discussions, which were then consolidated into structured, consensus recommendations. To inform the consensus, a narrative literature review was performed. Fifteen comprehensive consensus statements across nine key domains were developed. The domains included disease monitoring and compliance mechanisms, strengthening surveillance and data integration, optimizing vaccination timing, enhancing vaccination coverage rates, enhancing public confidence and acceptance, improving healthcare worker engagement, improving disease severity awareness, decentralizing vaccination responsibilities, and integrating live-attenuated influenza vaccine into public health programs. Implementing these recommendations should help in improving disease prevention and public health in Saudi Arabia.