Tracking Influenza's Every Movement

Analysis of approximately 13,000 human influenza A viruses from six continents 2002--2007 revealed continuous circulation in east/southeast Asia via a regional network of temporally overlapping epidemics and that epidemics in the temperate regions were seeded from this network each year. If the trends are an accurate representation of overall patterns, then the antigenic characteristics of A viruses outside Asia may be forecast each year based on surveillance within Asia, with consequent improvements to vaccine strain selection.

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