• FluTrackers.com Inc. does not provide medical advice. Information on this web site is collected from various internet resources, and the FluTrackers board of directors makes no warranty to the safety, efficacy, correctness or completeness of the information posted on this site by any author or poster. The information collated here is for instructional and/or discussion purposes only and is NOT intended to diagnose or treat any disease, illness, or other medical condition. Every individual reader or poster should seek advice from their personal physician/healthcare practitioner before considering or using any interventions that are discussed on this website. By continuing to access this website you agree to consult your personal physican before using any interventions posted on this website, and you agree to hold harmless FluTrackers.com Inc., the board of directors, the members, and all authors and posters for any effects from use of any medication, supplement, vitamin or other substance, device, intervention, etc. mentioned in posts on this website, or other internet venues referenced in posts on this website.
  • We are not asking for any donations. Do not donate to any entity who says they are raising funds for us.

Systematic Assessment of Multiple Routine and Near-Real Time Indicators to Classify the Severity of Influenza Seasons and Pandemics in the United Stat

tetano

Editor, Senior Moderator
Am J Epidemiol. 2017 Oct 19. doi: 10.1093/aje/kwx334. [Epub ahead of print]
[h=1]Systematic Assessment of Multiple Routine and Near-Real Time Indicators to Classify the Severity of Influenza Seasons and Pandemics in the United States, 2003-04 Through 2015-2016.[/h] Biggerstaff M, Kniss K, Jernigan DB, Brammer L, Bresee J, Garg S, Burns E, Reed C.
[h=3]Abstract[/h] Assessments of influenza season severity can guide public health action. We used the Moving Epidemic Method to develop intensity thresholds (IT) for 3 US surveillance indicators from the 2003-04-2014-15 influenza season (excluding the 2009 pandemic): 1) outpatient visits for influenza-like illness, 2) influenza-related hospitalizations, and 3) influenza- and pneumonia-related deaths. ITs were developed for the overall population and children, adults, and older adults separately and were the upper limit of the 50% (IT50), 90% (IT90), and 98% (IT98) one-sided CIs of the geometric mean of each season's 3 highest values. Severity was classified as low if ≥2 systems peaked below IT50, moderate if ≥2 peaked between IT50 and IT90, high if ≥2 peaked between IT90 and IT98, and very high if ≥2 peaked above IT98. We piloted this method with the 2015-16 season and the 2009 pandemic. Overall, 4 seasons were classified as low severity, 7 as moderate, 2 as high, and none as very high. While older adults had the most seasons (n = 3) classified as high, children were the only group to have seasons (n = 2) classified as very high. We will apply this method to classify the severity of future seasons and inform pandemic response.
Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health 2017. This work is written by (a) US Government employee(s) and is in the public domain in the US.


[h=4]KEYWORDS:[/h] epidemics; influenza; intensity; pandemics; severity

PMID: 29053783 DOI: 10.1093/aje/kwx334
 
Back
Top Bottom