2024/11/07 by Zhiyuan Chen, Joseph L.-H. Tsui, Bernardo Gutiérrez +10 · 1 voice · 6 citations
Medicine · Mathematics · #Influenza Virus Research Studies #COVID-19 epidemiological studies #Viral Infections and Outbreaks Research
paper · pdf · doi:10.1126/science.adq3003
The global dynamics of seasonal influenza viruses inform the design of surveillance, intervention, and vaccination strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a singular opportunity to evaluate how influenza circulation worldwide was perturbed by human behavioral changes. We combine molecular, epidemiological, and international travel data and find that the pandemic's onset led to a shift in the intensity and structure of international influenza lineage movement. During the pandemic, South Asia played an important role as a phylogenetic trunk location of influenza A viruses, whereas West Asia maintained the circulation of influenza B/Victoria. We explore drivers of influenza lineage dynamics across the pandemic period and reasons for the possible extinction of the B/Yamagata lineage. After a period of 3 years, the intensity of among-region influenza lineage movements returned to pre-pandemic levels, with the exception of B/Yamagata, after the recovery of global air traffic, highlighting the robustness of global lineage dispersal patterns to substantial perturbation.