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- Title
Importance of Routine Public Health Influenza Surveillance: Detection of an Unusual W-Shaped Influenza Morbidity Curve.
- Authors
Georgantopoulos, Peter; Bergquist, Eleanor Peters; Knaup, Richard C.; Anthony, John R.; Bailey, Thomas C.; Williams, Michael P.; Lawrence, Steven J.
- Abstract
Seasonal influenza causes excess morbidity and mortality at the extremes of age: It disproportionately affects the very young and the very old, typically resulting in “U”-shaped age-distributed curves. By means of a well-established public health department surveillance system using positive influenza tests submitted from sentinel sites, the authors generated annual influenza-specific morbidity curves over a 10-year period (1998–2008) for St. Louis County, Missouri. The authors detected an unusually high incidence of cases of medically attended test-positive influenza, particularly in young adults, during the 2007–2008 season, resulting in an unexpected “W”-shaped age-distributed morbidity curve that was distinctly unique in comparison with the prior 9 influenza seasons. Public health influenza surveillance programs are useful tools for detecting emerging epidemiologic trends that may have clinical importance.
- Subjects
INFLUENZA; PUBLIC health surveillance; PUBLIC health; AGE groups; EPIDEMIOLOGY; DISEASES
- Publication
American Journal of Epidemiology, 2009, Vol 170, Issue 12, p1533
- ISSN
0002-9262
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.1093/aje/kwp305