Marine W M, McGowan J E, Thomas J E
Am J Epidemiol. 1976 Sep;104(3):248-55. doi: 10.1093/oxfordjournals.aje.a112297.
Several prospective methods for surveillance of influenza were compared for the speed and efficacy with which they identified cases of influenza in metropolitan Atlanta during 1972-1975, a period in which two outbreaks of influenza occurred. In a large city-county hospital's outpatient clinics, systematic collection of pharyngeal cultures for virus isolation provided a rapid means for discovering the presence of influenzal illness and for monitoring the extent of the outbreak. Both obtaining cultures and determining the percentage of patients with respiratory complaints indicated an outbreak 3-5 weeks before epidemic disease was confirmed by a rise in the number of deaths due to pneumonia and influenza. Antigenic analysis of influenza A strains isolated during this three-year period showed that influenza A strains recovered in Atlanta in 1973-1974 (a non-epidemic year) were identical to the strains recovered in the 1974-1975 epidemic. Why no epidemic occurred in 1973-1974 in the presence of the epidemic strain of the virus is unknown, and the lack of an epidemic suggests that the role of virus persistence in the epidemiology of influenza requires further evaluation.
1972年至1975年期间，亚特兰大大都市地区发生了两次流感疫情，在此期间，研究人员比较了几种前瞻性流感监测方法在识别流感病例方面的速度和效果。在一家大型市县医院的门诊诊所，通过系统收集咽拭子培养物进行病毒分离，为发现流感疾病的存在和监测疫情范围提供了一种快速方法。无论是获取培养物还是确定有呼吸道症状患者的百分比，都表明在因肺炎和流感导致的死亡人数增加证实出现流行病之前3至5周就已爆发疫情。对这三年期间分离出的甲型流感病毒株进行的抗原分析表明，1973 - 1974年（非流行年）在亚特兰大分离出的甲型流感病毒株与1974 - 1975年疫情期间分离出的毒株相同。在存在该病毒流行株的情况下，1973 - 1974年为何未发生疫情尚不清楚，而未出现疫情表明病毒持续存在在流感流行病学中的作用需要进一步评估。
