TY - JOUR
T1 - Outbreak of Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses in Hospitalized Patients Alongside the SARS-CoV-2 Pandemic
AU - Fratty, Ilana S.
AU - Reznik-Balter, Shira
AU - Nemet, Ital
AU - Atari, Nofar
AU - Kliker, Limor
AU - Sherbany, Hilda
AU - Keller, Nathan
AU - Stein, Michal
AU - Mendelson, Ella
AU - Mandelboim, Michal
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
Copyright © 2022 Fratty, Reznik-Balter, Nemet, Atari, Kliker, Sherbany, Keller, Stein, Mendelson and Mandelboim.
PY - 2022/6/13
Y1 - 2022/6/13
N2 - Influenza A and other respiratory viruses, circulate each winter and cause respiratory illness that can lead to severe complications in hospitalized patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, only a few cases of respiratory viruses were detected in Israel. Our study applied RT-PCR to examine 13,674 samples collected from patients hospitalized with respiratory symptoms in 2019, 2020, and 2021 and the first half of the 2022 winter. A sharp increase in influenza A(H3N2) cases was observed in winter 2021-2022 as compared to 2020, followed by a sudden decrease in influenza cases after the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant in Israel. Comparison of the area under the curve (AUC) of influenza infection rates during 7 consecutive winter seasons found that the minimal AUC between 2015 and 2020 was 281.1, while in 2021-2022, it was significantly lower (162.6 AUC; p = 0.0017), although the percentage of positive influenza cases was similar to those of previous years. The presented findings show how the dominance of influenza A(H3N2) abruptly ended upon circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant. However, a post-COVID-19 influenza outbreak is possible, hence the planning of the next influenza vaccine is critical to ensure lower influenza-related hospitalization rates.
AB - Influenza A and other respiratory viruses, circulate each winter and cause respiratory illness that can lead to severe complications in hospitalized patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, only a few cases of respiratory viruses were detected in Israel. Our study applied RT-PCR to examine 13,674 samples collected from patients hospitalized with respiratory symptoms in 2019, 2020, and 2021 and the first half of the 2022 winter. A sharp increase in influenza A(H3N2) cases was observed in winter 2021-2022 as compared to 2020, followed by a sudden decrease in influenza cases after the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant in Israel. Comparison of the area under the curve (AUC) of influenza infection rates during 7 consecutive winter seasons found that the minimal AUC between 2015 and 2020 was 281.1, while in 2021-2022, it was significantly lower (162.6 AUC; p = 0.0017), although the percentage of positive influenza cases was similar to those of previous years. The presented findings show how the dominance of influenza A(H3N2) abruptly ended upon circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant. However, a post-COVID-19 influenza outbreak is possible, hence the planning of the next influenza vaccine is critical to ensure lower influenza-related hospitalization rates.
KW - SARS-CoV-2
KW - influenza
KW - omicron variant
KW - outbreak
KW - respiratory viruses
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85133529614&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3389/fmicb.2022.902476
DO - 10.3389/fmicb.2022.902476
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C2 - 35770154
AN - SCOPUS:85133529614
SN - 1664-302X
VL - 13
JO - Frontiers in Microbiology
JF - Frontiers in Microbiology
M1 - 902476
ER -