title: Little evidence for genetic susceptibility to influenza A (H5N1) from family clustering data.
abstract: The apparent clustering of human cases of influenza A (H5N1) among blood relatives has been considered as evidence of genetic variation in susceptibility. We show that, by chance alone, a high proportion of clusters are expected to be limited to blood relatives when infection is a rare event.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology, Harvard School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts 02115, USA. vpitzer@hsph.harvard.edu
authors.forename: Virginia E
authors.initials: VE
authors.lastname: Pitzer
authors.forename: Sonja J
authors.initials: SJ
authors.lastname: Olsen
authors.forename: Carl T
authors.initials: CT
authors.lastname: Bergstrom
authors.forename: Scott F
authors.initials: SF
authors.lastname: Dowell
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lipsitch
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004198:Disease Susceptibility; D020022:Genetic Predisposition to Disease; D014644:Genetic Variation; D006801:Humans; D053124:Influenza A Virus, H5N1 Subtype / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000276:immunology*; D008957:Models, Genetic