Whole-genome-based phylogenomic analysis of the Belgian 2016-2017 influenza A(H3N2) outbreak season allows improved surveillance.

ABSTRACT: Seasonal influenza epidemics are associated with high mortality and morbidity in the human population. Influenza surveillance is critical for providing information to national influenza programmes and for making vaccine composition predictions. Vaccination prevents viral infections, but rapid influenza evolution results in emerging mutants that differ antigenically from vaccine strains. Current influenza surveillance relies on Sanger sequencing of the haemagglutinin (HA) gene. Its classification according to World Health Organization (WHO) and European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) guidelines is based on combining certain genotypic amino acid mutations and phylogenetic analysis. Next-generation sequencing technologies enable a shift to whole-genome sequencing (WGS) for i

SUBMITTER: Van Poelvoorde LAE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8715427 | biostudies-literature | 2021 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature