tetano
Editor, Senior Moderator
American Journal of Epidemiology Advance Access originally published online on November 10, 2009
Seasonal influenza causes excess morbidity and mortality at the extremes of age: It disproportionately affects the very young and the very old, typically resulting in "U"-shaped age-distributed curves. By means of a well-established public health department surveillance system using positive influenza tests submitted from sentinel sites, the authors generated annual influenza-specific morbidity curves over a 10-year period (1998?2008) for St. Louis County, Missouri. The authors detected an unusually high incidence of cases of medically attended test-positive influenza, particularly in young adults, during the 2007?2008 season, resulting in an unexpected "W"-shaped age-distributed morbidity curve that was distinctly unique in comparison with the prior 9 influenza seasons. Public health influenza surveillance programs are useful tools for detecting emerging epidemiologic trends that may have clinical importance.
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/c...c=relevance&fdate=1/1/2000&resourcetype=HWCIT
Seasonal influenza causes excess morbidity and mortality at the extremes of age: It disproportionately affects the very young and the very old, typically resulting in "U"-shaped age-distributed curves. By means of a well-established public health department surveillance system using positive influenza tests submitted from sentinel sites, the authors generated annual influenza-specific morbidity curves over a 10-year period (1998?2008) for St. Louis County, Missouri. The authors detected an unusually high incidence of cases of medically attended test-positive influenza, particularly in young adults, during the 2007?2008 season, resulting in an unexpected "W"-shaped age-distributed morbidity curve that was distinctly unique in comparison with the prior 9 influenza seasons. Public health influenza surveillance programs are useful tools for detecting emerging epidemiologic trends that may have clinical importance.
http://aje.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/c...c=relevance&fdate=1/1/2000&resourcetype=HWCIT