News Release

Estimating severity of a flu epidemic

Press release from PLoS Medicine

Peer-Reviewed Publication

PLOS

In this week's PLoS Medicine, Joseph Wu of the University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong and colleagues report that using serological data coupled with clinical surveillance data can provide real-time estimates of the infection attack rates and severity in an emerging influenza pandemic.

The authors say, "[Serological surveillance] strategies would be useful not only for situational awareness of influenza pandemics but also for pandemics caused by other pathogens, for example a future SARS-like event. Serologic surveillance should be considered in updated plans for influenza pandemic preparedness and response and for other pandemics."

###

Funding
This project was supported by the Research Fund for the Control of Infectious Disease, Food and Health Bureau, Government of the Hong Kong SAR (grants PHE-20 and 10090272), the Area of Excellence Scheme of the Hong Kong University Grants Committee (grant AoE/M-12/06), the Harvard Center for Communicable Disease Dynamics from the US National Institutes of Health Models of Infectious Disease Agent Study program (grant 1 U54 GM088558), EMPERIE (EU FP7 grant 223498), and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, NIH (contract HHSN266200700005C; ADB No. N01-AI-70005). The funding bodies had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, preparation of the manuscript, or the decision to publish.

Competing Interests
BJC reports receiving research funding from MedImmune Inc., a manufacturer of influenza vaccines. JSMP is on the Editorial Board of PLoS Medicine. LMH is a member of the Scientific Committee on Advanced Data Analysis and Disease Modelling, Center for Health Protection, The Government of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It is unpaid. The authors report no other potential conflicts of interest.

Citation
Wu JT, Ho A, Ma ESK, Lee CK, Chu DKW, et al. (2011) Estimating Infection Attack Rates and Severity in Real Time during an Influenza Pandemic: Analysis of Serial Cross-Sectional Serologic Surveillance Data. PLoS Med 8(10): e1001103. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1001103


Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert system.