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Improving global influenza surveillance: trends of A(H5N1) virus in Africa and Asia

BACKGROUND: Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) viruses are an important health problem in many Asian and African countries. The current increase in human cases demonstrates that influenza A(H5N1) is still a significant global pandemic threat. Many health organizations have recognized the need...

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Autores principales: Escorcia, Magdalena, Attene-Ramos, Matias S, Estrada, Marco Juarez, Nava, Gerardo M
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: BioMed Central 2012
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3305413/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22268987
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-5-62
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author Escorcia, Magdalena
Attene-Ramos, Matias S
Estrada, Marco Juarez
Nava, Gerardo M
author_facet Escorcia, Magdalena
Attene-Ramos, Matias S
Estrada, Marco Juarez
Nava, Gerardo M
author_sort Escorcia, Magdalena
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) viruses are an important health problem in many Asian and African countries. The current increase in human cases demonstrates that influenza A(H5N1) is still a significant global pandemic threat. Many health organizations have recognized the need for new strategies to improve influenza global surveillance. Specifically, the World Health Organization through the global technical consultation for influenza surveillance have called for a detailed picture of the current limitations, especially at the nation level, to evaluate, standardize and strength reporting systems. The main goal of our study is to demonstrate the value of genetic surveillance as part of a strategic surveillance plan. As a proof of concept, we evaluated the current situation of influenza A(H5N1) in Asian and Africa. RESULTS: Our analysis revealed a power-law distribution in the number of sequences of A(H5N1) viruses analyzed and/or reported to influenza surveillance networks. The majority of the Asian and African countries at great risk of A(H5N1) infections have very few (approximately three orders of magnitude) sequenced A(H5N1) viruses (e.g. hemagglutinin genes). This suggests that countries under pandemic alert for avian influenza A(H5N1) have very limited participation (e.g. data generation, genetic analysis and data share) in avian influenza A(H5N1) surveillance. More important, this study demonstrates the usefulness of influenza genetic surveillance to detect emerging pandemic threat viruses. CONCLUSIONS: Our study reveals that some countries suffering from human cases of avian influenza have limited participation (e.g. genetic surveillance or data share) with global surveillance networks. Also, we demonstrate that the implementation of genetic surveillance programs could increase and strengthen worldwide epidemic and pandemic preparedness. We hope that this work promotes new discussions between policy makers and health surveillance organizations to improve current methodologies and regulations.
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spelling pubmed-33054132012-03-16 Improving global influenza surveillance: trends of A(H5N1) virus in Africa and Asia Escorcia, Magdalena Attene-Ramos, Matias S Estrada, Marco Juarez Nava, Gerardo M BMC Res Notes Short Report BACKGROUND: Highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) viruses are an important health problem in many Asian and African countries. The current increase in human cases demonstrates that influenza A(H5N1) is still a significant global pandemic threat. Many health organizations have recognized the need for new strategies to improve influenza global surveillance. Specifically, the World Health Organization through the global technical consultation for influenza surveillance have called for a detailed picture of the current limitations, especially at the nation level, to evaluate, standardize and strength reporting systems. The main goal of our study is to demonstrate the value of genetic surveillance as part of a strategic surveillance plan. As a proof of concept, we evaluated the current situation of influenza A(H5N1) in Asian and Africa. RESULTS: Our analysis revealed a power-law distribution in the number of sequences of A(H5N1) viruses analyzed and/or reported to influenza surveillance networks. The majority of the Asian and African countries at great risk of A(H5N1) infections have very few (approximately three orders of magnitude) sequenced A(H5N1) viruses (e.g. hemagglutinin genes). This suggests that countries under pandemic alert for avian influenza A(H5N1) have very limited participation (e.g. data generation, genetic analysis and data share) in avian influenza A(H5N1) surveillance. More important, this study demonstrates the usefulness of influenza genetic surveillance to detect emerging pandemic threat viruses. CONCLUSIONS: Our study reveals that some countries suffering from human cases of avian influenza have limited participation (e.g. genetic surveillance or data share) with global surveillance networks. Also, we demonstrate that the implementation of genetic surveillance programs could increase and strengthen worldwide epidemic and pandemic preparedness. We hope that this work promotes new discussions between policy makers and health surveillance organizations to improve current methodologies and regulations. BioMed Central 2012-01-23 /pmc/articles/PMC3305413/ /pubmed/22268987 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-5-62 Text en Copyright ©2012 Escorcia et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Short Report
Escorcia, Magdalena
Attene-Ramos, Matias S
Estrada, Marco Juarez
Nava, Gerardo M
Improving global influenza surveillance: trends of A(H5N1) virus in Africa and Asia
title Improving global influenza surveillance: trends of A(H5N1) virus in Africa and Asia
title_full Improving global influenza surveillance: trends of A(H5N1) virus in Africa and Asia
title_fullStr Improving global influenza surveillance: trends of A(H5N1) virus in Africa and Asia
title_full_unstemmed Improving global influenza surveillance: trends of A(H5N1) virus in Africa and Asia
title_short Improving global influenza surveillance: trends of A(H5N1) virus in Africa and Asia
title_sort improving global influenza surveillance: trends of a(h5n1) virus in africa and asia
topic Short Report
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3305413/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22268987
http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-5-62
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