Surveillance of influenza virus B circulation in Northern Italy: summer-fall 2008 isolation of three strains and phylogenetic analysis.
Influenza virus type B strains were unexpectedly detected and isolated in Italy during summer-fall 2008 from three patients travelling to Italy from Lebanon, Senegal and Uzbekistan. The three summer-fall strains matched to a high degree the hemagglutinin (HA1) of influenza virus type B strains circulating in Italy in the second part (January through April) of the 2007/2008 season, and HA1 of the type B strains included in the 2008/2009 vaccine (B/Yamagata/16/88 lineage). Surveillance of influenza virus circulation in Western countries also during the summer-fall season may help to trace and anticipate the appearance of new influenza virus variants.
Gerna
Giuseppe
G
Servizio di Virologia, Fondazione IRCCS Policlinico San Matteo, Pavia, Italy. g.gerna@smatteo.pv.it
Percivalle
Elena
E
Piralla
Antonio
A
Rognoni
Vanina
V
Marchi
Antonietta
A
Baldanti
Fausto
F
D019267:Hemagglutinin Glycoproteins, Influenza Virus / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D009981:Influenza B virus / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007252:Influenza Vaccines; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000821:virology*; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D009305:Nasopharynx / Q000821:virology; D010802:Phylogeny; D011159:Population Surveillance / Q000379:methods*; D020133:Reverse Transcriptase Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012621:Seasons; D013045:Species Specificity; D014195:Travel
D019267:Hemagglutinin Glycoproteins, Influenza Virus; D007252:Influenza Vaccines