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- Jennifer Cobelli Kett, MD
- Anagha Loharikar, MD
- Children's Hospital at Montefiore
Bronx, NY
Influenza is an orthomyxovirus, further classified into three types: A, B, and C. Types A and B are responsible for epidemic disease in humans. Influenza A viruses are categorized further based on surface antigens known as hemagglutinin (H) and neuraminidase (N). Current subtypes of influenza A viruses found in humans are H1N1 and H3N2. Frequent antigenic change, or antigenic drift, caused by point mutations during viral replication, results in new influenza virus variants, causing seasonal epidemics that generally occur in winter months in temperate zones. Occasionally, influenza A viruses undergo formation of an entirely new subtype through antigenic shift, resulting in a new hemagglutinin or neuraminidase protein, which creates the possibility of a pandemic.
Rates of influenza infection are highest in school-age children during community outbreaks, which usually last 4 to 8 …
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