Fratty Ilana S, Reznik-Balter Shira, Nemet Ital, Atari Nofar, Kliker Limor, Sherbany Hilda, Keller Nathan, Stein Michal, Mendelson Ella, Mandelboim Michal
Central Virology Laboratory, Public Health Services, Ministry of Health and Sheba Medical Center, Ramat Gan, Israel.
The Israel Center for Disease Control, Israel Ministry of Health, Ramat Gan, Israel.
Front Microbiol. 2022 Jun 13;13:902476. doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.902476. eCollection 2022.
Influenza A and other respiratory viruses, circulate each winter and cause respiratory illness that can lead to severe complications in hospitalized patients. During the COVID-19 pandemic, only a few cases of respiratory viruses were detected in Israel. Our study applied RT-PCR to examine 13,674 samples collected from patients hospitalized with respiratory symptoms in 2019, 2020, and 2021 and the first half of the 2022 winter. A sharp increase in influenza A(H3N2) cases was observed in winter 2021-2022 as compared to 2020, followed by a sudden decrease in influenza cases after the detection of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant in Israel. Comparison of the area under the curve (AUC) of influenza infection rates during 7 consecutive winter seasons found that the minimal AUC between 2015 and 2020 was 281.1, while in 2021-2022, it was significantly lower (162.6 AUC; = 0.0017), although the percentage of positive influenza cases was similar to those of previous years. The presented findings show how the dominance of influenza A(H3N2) abruptly ended upon circulation of the SARS-CoV-2 omicron variant. However, a post-COVID-19 influenza outbreak is possible, hence the planning of the next influenza vaccine is critical to ensure lower influenza-related hospitalization rates.
甲型流感和其他呼吸道病毒每年冬季都会传播，并引发呼吸道疾病，可能导致住院患者出现严重并发症。在新冠疫情期间，以色列仅检测到少数呼吸道病毒病例。我们的研究应用逆转录聚合酶链反应（RT-PCR）检测了2019年、2020年、2021年以及2022年冬季上半年有呼吸道症状的住院患者所采集的13674份样本。与2020年相比，2021 - 2022年冬季甲型（H3N2）流感病例急剧增加，随后在以色列检测到严重急性呼吸综合征冠状病毒2（SARS-CoV-2）奥密克戎变异株后，流感病例突然减少。连续7个冬季流感感染率曲线下面积（AUC）的比较发现，2015年至2020年期间最小的AUC为281.1，而在2021 - 2022年，该值显著更低（AUC为162.6；P = 0.0017），尽管流感阳性病例的百分比与前几年相似。研究结果表明，甲型（H3N2）流感的主导地位在SARS-CoV-2奥密克戎变异株传播后突然结束。然而，新冠疫情后可能会爆发流感，因此规划下一剂流感疫苗对于确保降低流感相关住院率至关重要。
