Search This Blog

Saturday, January 21, 2012

WHO : Influenza update - update 151

The latest influenza update from WHO, excerpt :

" Summary

• Influenza activity in the temperate regions of the northern hemisphere remains low overall though notable local increases in activity have been reported in some areas of Canada, Europe (Turkey, Spain, Italy and Malta), northern Africa (Tunisia and Algeria), China and the middle East (the Islamic Republic of Iran).

• Countries in the tropical zone reported generally low or undetectable levels of influenza activity with the exception of southern China, where influenza type B detections are increasing, and Costa Rica, which continues to report influenza A(H3N2) but at declining levels.

• Influenza activity in the temperate countries of the southern hemisphere is at inter-seasonal levels though Chile, Paraguay and Australia all report persistent low level transmission of A(H3N2) during their summer season.

• The most commonly detected virus type or subtype throughout the northern hemisphere temperate zone has been influenza A(H3N2) with the exception of Mexico, where influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 is the predominant subtype circulating, and China which is reporting a predominance of influenza type B. Other than Mexico, only very small numbers of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 have been reported globally.

• Reports from countries that do antigenic characterization indicate that nearly all influenza A viruses tested are antigenically related to those viruses included in the current trivalent influenza vaccine. While many of the influenza type B viruses are of the Yamagata lineage, which is not included in the current vaccine, overall numbers of influenza B virus detections are quite low compared to influenza type A (with the exception of China noted above).

• Oseltamivir resistance continues to be observed at very low levels and has not increased notably over levels reported in previous seasons."

No comments:

Post a Comment