tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
BOSTON -- The secondary household attack rate of the H1N1 pandemic flu was as high as 45% during its first wave last spring, researchers reported here.
That rate is markedly higher than previous estimates -- which ranged from 4% to 18% -- Jesse Papenburg, MD, of Laval University in Quebec, told MedPage Today at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).
According to Papenburg, in clinical data gathered from serial visits to 42 households in Quebec City -- including 43 primary cases and 119 contacts -- the virus was laboratory-confirmed in 53 of the contacts.
However, he said that the investigators used two laboratory methods to confirm H1N1 infection -- polymerase chain reaction and serology -- that might have captured disease missed by earlier analyses. As well, he noted, none of the patients had been treated with antiviral drugs.
The researchers had found earlier that patients in the same cohort shed the H1N1 flu virus for longer periods than experts initially anticipated. (See ICAAC: H1N1 Patients Shed Virus Longer than Thought)
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http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ICAAC/22136
That rate is markedly higher than previous estimates -- which ranged from 4% to 18% -- Jesse Papenburg, MD, of Laval University in Quebec, told MedPage Today at the Interscience Conference on Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy (ICAAC).
According to Papenburg, in clinical data gathered from serial visits to 42 households in Quebec City -- including 43 primary cases and 119 contacts -- the virus was laboratory-confirmed in 53 of the contacts.
However, he said that the investigators used two laboratory methods to confirm H1N1 infection -- polymerase chain reaction and serology -- that might have captured disease missed by earlier analyses. As well, he noted, none of the patients had been treated with antiviral drugs.
The researchers had found earlier that patients in the same cohort shed the H1N1 flu virus for longer periods than experts initially anticipated. (See ICAAC: H1N1 Patients Shed Virus Longer than Thought)
...
http://www.medpagetoday.com/MeetingCoverage/ICAAC/22136