Establishing the baseline burden of influenza in preparation for the evaluation of a countywide school-based influenza vaccination campaign.

ABSTRACT:

Background

School-based influenza vaccination campaigns could mitigate the effects of influenza epidemics. A large countywide school-based vaccination campaign was launched in Knox County, Tennessee, in 2005. Assessment of campaign effects requires identification of appropriate control populations. We hypothesized that contiguous counties would share similar pre-campaign patterns of influenza activity.

Methods

We compared the burden of influenza emergency department (ED) visits and hospitalizations between Knox County (Knox) and eight counties surrounding Knox (Knox-surrounding) during five consecutive pre-campaign influenza seasons (2000-01 through 2004-05). Laboratory-defined influenza seasons were used to measure the weekly incidence of medically attended acute respirator

SUBMITTER: Grijalva CG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4818949 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature