Indiana H3N2v Outbreak Raises Concerns
Recombinomics.com
June 27, 2013
detection of four cases of variant influenza A (H3N2v).
All individuals visited the Grant County Agricultural Fair, June 16-22, prior to illness,
The above comments from the Indiana State Health Department represent the third year in a row where the first H3N2v cases for the summer swine flu season were from Indiana (see map). However, the above cases are the earliest reported cases for the season.
In 2011 the first case was noted in late August based on sequences deposited by the CDC at GISAID, which were generated from a July 27 collection. The case (2M) was not directly linked to swine, but his caretaker had prior contact with swine at a fair. The sequence of the isolate, A/Indiana/08/2011, was the first human H3N2v case with an H1N1pdm09 M gene, That Indiana case was followed by confirmation of 3 cases at the Washington County fair in Pennsylvania, which at the time were the most H3N2v confirmed cases reported from the same venue. However, a follow-up study involving calls to 4-H members for participated in the fair identified 4 additional cases based on H3N2v antibody levels, as well as 81 additional cases with flu-like symptoms, which are uncommon in Pennsylvania in August. The three Pennsylvania sequences, as well as sequences from all subsequent H3M2v cases had an H1N1pdm09 M gene. The subsequent isolates from Indiana, Maine, and Iowa were closely related to the Indiana sequences.
The Rest…HERE
