Journal article
Differential age susceptibility to influenza B/victoria lineage viruses in the 2015 Australian influenza season
IG Barr, D Vijaykrishna, SG Sullivan
Eurosurveillance | EUR CENTRE DIS PREVENTION & CONTROL | Published : 2016
Abstract
© 2016, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). All rights reserved. Influenza B viruses make up an important part of the burden from seasonal influenza globally. The 2015 sea-son in Australia saw an unusual predominance of influ-enza B with a distinctive switch during the season from B/Yamagata/16/88 lineage viruses to B/Victoria/2/87 lineage viruses. We also noted significant differences in the age groups infected by the different B lineages, with B/Victoria infecting a younger population than B/Yamagata, that could not be explained by potential prior exposure.
Grants
Awarded by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, United States
Funding Acknowledgements
The Melbourne WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza is supported by the Australian Government Department of Health. The authors would like to thank all laboratories that supplied samples used in these studies, including the Australian WHO National Influenza Centres at VIDRL in Victoria, ICPMR in Sydney, Pathwest in Perth and other laboratories and hospitals in Australia. DV is supported by the Duke-NUS Signature Research Program funded by the Agency of Science, Technology and Research, Singapore and the Ministry of Health Singapore, and by contract HHSN272201400006C from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services, United States.