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Estimating severity of a flu epidemic

October 4th, 2011

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."

More information:
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

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