Self-reported influenza and influenza-like symptoms in U.S. adults age 18-64 between September 1, 2019 and April 15, 2020.
J Clin Virol
; 134: 104709, 2021 01.
Article
in English
| MEDLINE | ID: covidwho-957191
ABSTRACT
BACKGROUND:
The Influenza-like Illness Surveillance Network (ILINet) can indicate the presence of novel, widespread community pathogens. Comparing week-to-week reported influenza-like illness percentages may identify the time of year a novel pathogen is introduced. However, changes in health-seeking behavior during the COVID-19 pandemic call in to question the reliability of 2019-2020 ILINet data as a comparison to prior years, potentially rendering this system less reliable as a novel pathogen surveillance tool. Corroboration of trends seen in the 2019-2020 ILINet data lends confidence to the validity of those trends. This study compares predicted versus reported influenza and influenza-like illnesses in vaccinated adults as a surrogate measure of novel pathogen surveillance.METHODS:
An online survey was used to ask US adults their influenza vaccination status, whether they were diagnosed with influenza after vaccination, and whether they experienced an influenza-like illness other than flu.RESULTS:
Prevalence of self-reported flu diagnosis in adults age 18-64 who received the flu vaccine between September 1, 2019 and April 15, 2020 (n = 3,225) was 5.8 %, while self-reported flu or flu-like illness (without a flu diagnosis) was 17.9 %.CONCLUSION:
Flu and flu-like illness in this sample of flu-vaccinated U.S. adults is significantly higher than predicted, consistent with substantially higher ILI's in 2019-20 compared to ILI's from 2018-19, suggesting that the ILI values reported during the COVID-19 pandemic may be appropriate for comparison to prior years.Keywords
Full text:
Available
Collection:
International databases
Database:
MEDLINE
Main subject:
Vaccination
/
Influenza, Human
/
Pandemics
/
COVID-19
Type of study:
Observational study
/
Prognostic study
Topics:
Vaccines
Limits:
Adolescent
/
Adult
/
Female
/
Humans
/
Male
/
Middle aged
Country/Region as subject:
North America
Language:
English
Journal:
J Clin Virol
Journal subject:
Virology
Year:
2021
Document Type:
Article
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