Pandemic influenza H1N1 in Mexico
2011-05-25
(Press-News.org) Gerardo Chowell and coworkers report the incidence of pandemic influenza H1N1 morbidity and mortality in 32 Mexican states in 2009 and quantify the association between local influenza transmission rates, school cycles, and demographic factors. By using the epidemiological surveillance system of the Mexican Institute for Social Security, which covers about 40% of the Mexican population (107 million individuals), they compiled age- and state-specific rates of incident influenza-like illness and pandemic H1N1 influenza cases by day of symptom onset to analyze the geographic patterns of the dissemination of the flu pandemic across Mexico in 2009. Using these data as inputs to a mathematical model they show that the age distribution of pandemic influenza morbidity was greater in younger age groups while the risk of severe disease was highest in older age groups. But most importantly, these findings support the effectiveness of early mitigation efforts including mandatory school closures and cancellation of large public gatherings, reinforcing the importance of school cycles in the transmission of pandemic influenza.
INFORMATION:
Funding: This work was funded by the Fogarty International Center, National Institutes of Health (http://www.fic.nih.gov/). LS acknowledges support from the RAPIDD program of the Science and Technology Directorate, Department of Homeland Security, and the Fogarty International Center. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Competing Interests: LS received consulting fees from SDI, a health data warehouse business in Pennsylvania, and received research support from Pfizer for a pneumococcal vaccine study, but this is not relevant to the topic of this paper. MAM has been named on a US government patent for an experimental influenza vaccine as required by Federal requirements.
Citation: Chowell G, Echevarría-Zuno S, Viboud C, Simonsen L, Tamerius J, et al. (2011) Characterizing the Epidemiology of the 2009 Influenza A/H1N1 Pandemic in Mexico. PLoS Med 8(5): e1000436. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000436
IN YOUR COVERAGE PLEASE USE THIS URL TO PROVIDE ACCESS TO THE FREELY AVAILABLE PAPER:
http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000436
CONTACT:
Gerardo Chowell
Arizona State University
School of Human Evolution and Social Change
Box 872402
Tempe, Arizona 85282
United States of America
480-965-4730
gchowell@asu.edu
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[Press-News.org] Pandemic influenza H1N1 in Mexico
