An extended period of elevated influenza mortality risk follows the main waves of influenza pandemics.

ABSTRACT: Understanding the extent and evolution of pandemic-induced mortality risk is critical given its wide-ranging impacts on population health and socioeconomic outcomes. We examine empirically the persistence and scale of influenza mortality risk following the main waves of influenza pandemics, a quantitative analysis of which is required to understand the true scale of pandemic-induced risk. We provide evidence from municipal public health records that multiple recurrent outbreaks followed the main waves of the 1918-19 pandemic in eight large cities in the UK, a pattern we confirm using data for the same period in the US and data for multiple influenza pandemics during the period 1838-2000 in England and Wales. To estimate the persistence and scale of latent post-pandemic influenza mortality

SUBMITTER: Schroeder M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7614920 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature