Seasonal influenza activity in young children before the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China

Zhi Xia; Lin Yang; Na Li; Bo Nie; Hong Wang; Hui Xu; Daihai He

doi:10.1111/tbed.13799

Seasonal influenza activity in young children before the COVID-19 outbreak in Wuhan, China

Transbound Emerg Dis. 2020 Nov;67(6):2277-2279. doi: 10.1111/tbed.13799. Epub 2020 Sep 1.

Authors

Zhi Xia¹, Lin Yang², Na Li³, Bo Nie⁴, Hong Wang⁵, Hui Xu⁶, Daihai He⁷

Affiliations

¹ Department of Pediatric Internal Medicine, Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Hubei Province, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
² School of Nursing, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.
³ Department of Anesthesiology, Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Hubei Province, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁴ Department of Clinical Laboratory, Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Hubei Province, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁵ Department of Child Health Care, Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Hubei Province, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁶ Department of Paediatrics, Maternal and Child Health Hospital of Hubei Province, Tongji Medical College, Huazhong University of Science and Technology, Wuhan, China.
⁷ Department of Applied Mathematics, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong, China.

Abstract

The activity of influenza A at the end of 2019 was higher than previous two years in children younger than 6 years old in Wuhan, China. The 2019-2020 winter peak of seasonal influenza preceded the COVID-19 outbreak, with a higher and earlier peak than those of the 2017-2018 and 2018-2019 seasons. We speculate this could be due to the earlier CNY holiday season in 2019-2020 than in previous two years. We compared these results with those of two previous studies to further discuss the possible interference between influenza and COVID-19 in young children.

Keywords: COVID-19; children; influenza.

MeSH terms

COVID-19 / epidemiology*
Child
Child, Preschool
China / epidemiology
Humans
Incidence
Infant
Infant, Newborn
Influenza, Human / epidemiology*
Seasons

Abstract

MeSH terms

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