The impact of the COVID-19 preventive measures on influenza transmission: molecular and epidemiological evidence.
Int J Infect Dis
; 116: 11-13, 2022 Mar.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-1559405
ABSTRACT
OBJECTIVE:
We quantify the impact of COVID-19-related control measures on the spread of human influenza virus H1N1 and H3N2.METHODS:
We analyzed case numbers to estimate the end of the 2019-2020 influenza season and compared it with the median of the previous 9 seasons. In addition, we used influenza molecular data to compare within-region and between-region genetic diversity and effective population size from 2019 to 2020. Finally, we analyzed personal behavior and policy stringency data for each region.RESULTS:
The 2019-2020 influenza season ended earlier than the median of the previous 9 seasons in all regions. For H1N1 and H3N2, there was an increase in between-region genetic diversity in most pairs of regions between 2019 and 2020. There was a decrease in within-region genetic diversity for 12 of 14 regions for H1N1 and 9 of 12 regions for H3N2. There was a decrease in effective population size for 10 of 13 regions for H1N1 and 3 of 7 regions for H3N2.CONCLUSIONS:
We found consistent evidence of a decrease in influenza incidence after the introduction of preventive measures due to COVID-19 emergence.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Influenza, Human
/
Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Experimental Studies
/
Observational study
Limits:
Humans
Language:
English
Journal:
Int J Infect Dis
Journal subject:
Communicable Diseases
Year:
2022
Document Type:
Article
Affiliation country:
J.ijid.2021.12.323
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