Start of the influenza season 2008-9 in Europe - increasing influenza activity moving from West to East dominated by A(H3N2)

N Goddard; P Zucs; B Ciancio; F Plata; O Hungnes; A Mazick; A Meijer; A Hay; R Daniels; A Nicoll; M Zambon

doi:10.2807/ese.14.03.19097-en

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Start of the influenza season 2008-9 in Europe - increasing influenza activity moving from West to East dominated by A(H3N2)

N Goddard¹, P Zucs², B Ciancio², F Plata², O Hungnes³, A Mazick⁴, A Meijer^5,6, A Hay^6,7, R Daniels^6,7, A Nicoll², M Zambon^1,6
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Affiliations: ¹ Health Protection Agency, London, United Kingdom ² European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden ³ Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Oslo, Norway ⁴ Statens Serum Institut, Copenhagen, Denmark ⁵ National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, The Netherlands ⁶ Community Network of Reference Laboratories (CNRL) for Human Influenza in Europe, ⁷ MRC National Institute for Medical Research, London, United Kingdom

Correspondence:
N Goddard
Nichola.Goddard hpa.org.uk
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Citation style for this article: Goddard N, Zucs P, Ciancio B, Plata F, Hungnes O, Mazick A, Meijer A, Hay A, Daniels R, Nicoll A, Zambon M. Start of the influenza season 2008-9 in Europe - increasing influenza activity moving from West to East dominated by A(H3N2). Euro Surveill. 2009;14(3):pii=19097. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.14.03.19097-en Received: 19 Jan 2009; Accepted:

Abstract

The influenza season 2008-9 started in week 49 of 2008 and is so far characterised by influenza virus type A subtype H3N2. Isolates of this subtype that were tested proved susceptible to neuraminidase inhibitors, but resistant to M2 inhibitors. The circulating A(H3N2) viruses are antigenically similar to the component in the current northern hemisphere influenza vaccine.