title: Influenza virus infections in Lebanese children in the 2007-2008 season.
abstract: We conducted the first epidemiological study of influenza in Lebanon, a temperate country in the Middle East. Between January to May 2008, 39 patients with influenza-like illness were tested. Of these, 51% contracted influenza in January alone, while no influenza cases were detected in May. Among the 39 patients, 11 influenza A and 4 influenza B cases were detected by rapid kit in addition to 10 respiratory syncytial virus cases by real-time PCR. The influenza viruses were genetically divergent from the 2007/2008 season's vaccine strains, but resembled strains circulating in other countries during the same season.
authors.affiliation: Department of Infectious Diseases Contorl and International Medicine, Niigata University, Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences, Niigata 951-8510, Japan. hasanz@med.niigata-u.ac.jp
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Zaraket
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Dbaibo
authors.forename: O
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Salam
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Saito
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Suzuki
mesh_terms: D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D006389:Hemagglutinins, Viral / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D053122:Influenza A Virus, H3N2 Subtype / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D009981:Influenza B virus / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology*; D007861:Lebanon / Q000453:epidemiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012136:Respiratory Syncytial Viruses / Q000302:isolation & purification; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D006389:Hemagglutinins, Viral; C458881:hemagglutinin fusogenic peptide, influenza virus