Center for Public Health Informatics, National Institute of Public Health, Saitama, Japan.
Department of Hygiene and Public Health, Teikyo University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Western Pac Surveill Response J. 2022 Aug 25;13(3):1-9. doi: 10.5365/wpsar.2022.13.3.911. eCollection 2022 Jul-Sep.
We described the characteristics of children reported as having influenza across five consecutive influenza seasons and investigated the usefulness of setting influenza thresholds in two satellite cities of Tokyo, Japan.
An annual survey was conducted among parents of children at preschools (kindergartens and nursery schools), elementary schools and junior high schools in Toda and Warabi cities, Saitama prefecture, at the end of the 2014-2018 influenza seasons. Using the World Health Organization method, we established seasonal, high and alert thresholds.
There were 64 586 children included in the analysis. Over the five seasons, between 19.1% and 22% of children annually were reported as having tested positive for influenza. Influenza type A was reported as the dominant type, although type B was also reported in more than 40% of cases in the 2015 and 2017 seasons. The median period of the seasonal peak was 3 weeks in mid-January, regardless of school level. Of the five surveyed seasons, the high threshold was reached in 2014 and 2018, with no season exceeding the alert threshold.
This study provides insights into the circulation of influenza in children in the study areas of Toda and Warabi, Japan, from 2014 to 2018. Although we were able to utilize these annual surveys to calculate influenza thresholds from five consecutive seasons, the prospective usefulness of these thresholds is limited as the survey is conducted at the end of the influenza season.
我们描述了连续五个流感季节报告的患有流感的儿童的特征，并研究了在日本东京的两个卫星城市设定流感阈值的有效性。
在埼玉县户田市和蕨市的幼儿园（幼儿园和托儿所）、小学和初中，我们在 2014-2018 年流感季节结束时对家长进行了年度调查。我们使用世界卫生组织的方法建立了季节性、高和警戒阈值。
共有 64586 名儿童纳入分析。在五个季节中，每年有 19.1%至 22%的儿童报告流感检测呈阳性。甲型流感被报告为主要类型，尽管乙型流感在 2015 年和 2017 年的季节中也有超过 40%的报告。季节性高峰的中位时间是 1 月中旬的 3 周，无论学校水平如何。在五个调查季节中，高阈值在 2014 年和 2018 年达到，没有一个季节超过警戒阈值。
本研究提供了 2014 年至 2018 年日本户田和蕨地区儿童流感流行情况的见解。虽然我们能够利用这五个连续季节的年度调查来计算流感阈值，但由于调查是在流感季节结束时进行的，因此这些阈值的前瞻性实用性有限。
