Sunday, January 26, 2014

Preventing and Controlling Influenza with Available Interventions


Influenza activity has been surging in the United States, and there are reports of critical illness and death in young and middle-aged adults. The predominant virus so far this season is influenza A(H1N1)pdm09, the cause of the 2009 H1N1 pandemic. Despite many challenges, there is much that the public, patients, the public health community, and clinicians can do now to reduce influenza's impact.

The spread of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 virus suggests that despite its ongoing circulation since 2009, population immunity is not sufficiently high and many people remain susceptible. To date, surveillance data provide no evidence of significant antigenic drift in the circulating virus strains, so susceptibility could be due to the presence of a substantial number of previously uninfected and unvaccinated persons or to waning immunity from prior infection.


Timothy M. Uyeki, M.D., M.P.H., M.P.P.
The New England Journal of Medicine 
January 22, 2014DOI: 10.1056/NEJMp1400034

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