Affiliations 

  • 1 State Key Laboratory of Emerging Infectious Diseases, School of Public Health, The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong SAR, China
  • 2 Clinical Microbiology, University Hospitals Leicester, Level 5 Sandringham Building, Leicester Royal Infirmary, Infirmary Square, Leicester LE1 5WW, UK. Electronic address: julian.tang@uhl-tr.nhs.uk
  • 3 Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit, University of Leicester, Leicester, UK
  • 4 Faculty of Medicine, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon
  • 5 Child Health Research Centre, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia; Children's Health Queensland, Brisbane, Australia
  • 6 National Influenza Center, Virology Unit, Institut Pasteur de Madagascar, Antananarivo 101, Madagascar
  • 7 Alberta Provincial Laboratory for Public Health, University of Alberta, Edmonton, AB, Canada
  • 8 Department of Pathology, Dalhousie University, Halifax, NS, Canada
  • 9 Department of Microbiology, The Chinese University of Hong Kong SAR, Hong Kong, China
  • 10 Department of Pathology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore
  • 11 Molecular Diagnosis Centre, National University Hospital, Singapore
  • 12 Faculty of Medicine, University of Malaya, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
  • 13 Department of Pediatrics, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands; ViroScience, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands
  • 14 Pathology Department, University of Otago, Christchurch, New Zealand
  • 15 Institute of Biomedicine, University of Turku, Finland; Clinical Microbiology, Turku University Hospital, Turku, Finland
  • 16 British Columbia Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Vancouver, BC, Canada
  • 17 Government of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife, NT, Canada
  • 18 Department of Pathology, Addenbrookes Hospital, Cambridge, UK
  • 19 Virus Research Center, Sendai Medical Center, Sendai, Japan
  • 20 Laboratory of Virology, National Center for Communicable Diseases, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
  • 21 Department of Parasitology, Microbiology and Immunology, Federal University of Juiz de Fora, Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais, Brazil
  • 22 National Reference Laboratory, Kigali, Rwanda
  • 23 NSWHP-ICPMR, Westmead Hospital, Sydney, Australia; Pathology and Infectious Diseases, University of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
  • 24 ViroScience, Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, Netherlands
J Infect, 2019 10;79(4):373-382.
PMID: 31323249 DOI: 10.1016/j.jinf.2019.07.008

Abstract

OBJECTIVES: To improve our understanding of the global epidemiology of common respiratory viruses by analysing their contemporaneous incidence at multiple sites.

METHODS: 2010-2015 incidence data for influenza A (IAV), influenza B (IBV), respiratory syncytial (RSV) and parainfluenza (PIV) virus infections were collected from 18 sites (14 countries), consisting of local (n = 6), regional (n = 9) and national (n = 3) laboratories using molecular diagnostic methods. Each site submitted monthly virus incidence data, together with details of their patient populations tested and diagnostic assays used.

RESULTS: For the Northern Hemisphere temperate countries, the IAV, IBV and RSV incidence peaks were 2-6 months out of phase with those in the Southern Hemisphere, with IAV having a sharp out-of-phase difference at 6 months, whereas IBV and RSV showed more variable out-of-phase differences of 2-6 months. The tropical sites Singapore and Kuala Lumpur showed fluctuating incidence of these viruses throughout the year, whereas subtropical sites such as Hong Kong, Brisbane and Sydney showed distinctive biannual peaks for IAV but not for RSV and PIV.

CONCLUSIONS: There was a notable pattern of synchrony of IAV, IBV and RSV incidence peaks globally, and within countries with multiple sampling sites (Canada, UK, Australia), despite significant distances between these sites.

* Title and MeSH Headings from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.