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Influenza B in a temperate region of northern India 2010–2016: co-circulation of the two lineages with northern hemispherical seasonality

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Abstract

Scant data exist about the epidemiology of influenza B in India. We set out to address the epidemiology of influenza B in a temperate region of northern India from 2010 to 2016. Outpatient and inpatient surveillance was conducted in patients presenting with acute respiratory infection in a northern Indian hospital from September 2010 till April 2016. After recording clinical data, combined nasal/throat swabs were collected and tested for influenza viruses by real time RT-PCR. Influenza A viruses were further subtyped into A/H3N2 and A/H1N1 whereas influenza B were differentiated into B/Yamagata and B/Victoria. Virus isolation, haemaggglutination inhibition testing, sequencing and phylogenetic analysis was carried out on representative samples. Of the 6879 recruited cases, influenza B was detected in 299 (4.3%). The patients presented with respiratory symptoms of varying duration; cough, fever and nasal discharge being the most common. The peaking of the activity of the circulation showed a correlation with the onset of the winter with reduced temperatures and high dry humidity. B/Victoria lineage was detected in 35.4% (n = 106/299) whereas 53.8% (n = 161/299) were B/Yamagata. The circulation in each season was dominated by one lineage which correlated with the vaccine strain, but up to 37% consisted of a different lineage. We conclude that Influenza B exhibits a northern hemispherical seasonality in temperate northern India with co-circulation of the 2 lineages of influenza B. These findings have relevance for vaccine effectiveness and argue for vaccination with a quadrivalent influenza vaccine.

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Acknowledgements

The earlier data of the study was in part supported by the CDC, USA, Atlanta, Georgia, Indian Council of Medical Research under their cooperative agreement which was over in 2014. The authors acknowledge the support of WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza, Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, 792 Elizabeth Street, Melbourne VIC3000, Australia for providing the primer sequences for genome analysis for Influenza B. The authors acknowledge the support of CDC, Influenza, ICMR and Dr Renu Lal, Dr S Saha and Dr Marc Alain Widdowson.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Influenza Laboratory, Department of Internal and Pulmonary Medicine, Sheri Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences, Srinagar, J&K, 190011, India

    Parvaiz A. Koul, Masooma Showkat & Hyder Mir

  2. National Institute of Virology, Pune, Mahrashtra, India

    Varsha Potdar & M. S. Chadha

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  1. Parvaiz A. Koul
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  2. Varsha Potdar
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Correspondence to Parvaiz A. Koul.

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Koul, P.A., Potdar, V., Showkat, M. et al. Influenza B in a temperate region of northern India 2010–2016: co-circulation of the two lineages with northern hemispherical seasonality. VirusDis. 29, 553–559 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13337-018-0487-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13337-018-0487-8

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