Decreased Seasonal Influenza Rates Detected in a Crowdsourced Influenza-Like Illness Surveillance System During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Prospective Cohort Study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Seasonal respiratory viruses had lower incidence during their 2019-2020 and 2020-2021 seasons, which overlapped with the COVID-19 pandemic. The widespread implementation of precautionary measures to prevent transmission of SARS-CoV-2 has been seen to also mitigate transmission of seasonal influenza. The COVID-19 pandemic also led to changes in care seeking and access. Participatory surveillance systems have historically captured mild illnesses that are often missed by surveillance systems that rely on encounters with a health care provider for detection.

Objective

This study aimed to assess if a crowdsourced syndromic surveillance system capable of detecting mild influenza-like illness (ILI) also captured the globally observed decrease in ILI in the 2019-2020 and

SUBMITTER: Gertz A 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10784978 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature