Obesity Increases the Duration of Influenza A Virus Shedding in Adults
Hannah E Maier Roger Lopez Nery Sanchez Sophia Ng Lionel Gresh Sergio Ojeda Raquel Burger-Calderon Guillermina Kuan Eva Harris Angel Balmaseda ... Show more
The Journal of Infectious Diseases, jiy370, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiy370
Published:
02 August 2018
Article history
Abstract
Epidemiologic studies indicate that obesity increases the risk of severe complications and death from influenza virus infections, especially in elderly individuals. This work investigates the effect of obesity on the duration of viral shedding within household transmission studies in Managua, Nicaragua, over 3 seasons (2015?2017). Symptomatic obese adults were shown to shed influenza A virus 42% longer than nonobese adults (adjusted event time ratio [ETR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06?1.89); no association was observed with influenza B virus shedding duration. Even among paucisymptomatic and asymptomatic adults, obesity increased the influenza A shedding duration by 104% (adjusted ETR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.35?3.09). These findings suggest that obesity may play an important role in influenza transmission.
Hannah E Maier Roger Lopez Nery Sanchez Sophia Ng Lionel Gresh Sergio Ojeda Raquel Burger-Calderon Guillermina Kuan Eva Harris Angel Balmaseda ... Show more
The Journal of Infectious Diseases, jiy370, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiy370
Published:
02 August 2018
Article history
Abstract
Epidemiologic studies indicate that obesity increases the risk of severe complications and death from influenza virus infections, especially in elderly individuals. This work investigates the effect of obesity on the duration of viral shedding within household transmission studies in Managua, Nicaragua, over 3 seasons (2015?2017). Symptomatic obese adults were shown to shed influenza A virus 42% longer than nonobese adults (adjusted event time ratio [ETR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06?1.89); no association was observed with influenza B virus shedding duration. Even among paucisymptomatic and asymptomatic adults, obesity increased the influenza A shedding duration by 104% (adjusted ETR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.35?3.09). These findings suggest that obesity may play an important role in influenza transmission.
Comment