Characterising the epidemic spread of influenza A/H3N2 within a city through phylogenetics.

ABSTRACT: Infecting large portions of the global population, seasonal influenza is a major burden on societies around the globe. While the global source sink dynamics of the different seasonal influenza viruses have been studied intensively, its local spread remains less clear. In order to improve our understanding of how influenza is transmitted on a city scale, we collected an extremely densely sampled set of influenza sequences alongside patient metadata. To do so, we sequenced influenza viruses isolated from patients of two different hospitals, as well as private practitioners in Basel, Switzerland during the 2016/2017 influenza season. The genetic sequences reveal that repeated introductions into the city drove the influenza season. We then reconstruct how the effective reproduction number chan

SUBMITTER: Muller NF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7676729 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature