Age-Specific Differences in the Epidemic Curves for Influenza A Virus: Do School Children Drive the Spread of Influenza Epidemics?

• Activity Number: 480
• Type: Contributed
• Date/Time: Wednesday, August 4, 2010 : 8:30 AM to 10:20 AM
• Sponsor: Section on Statistics in Epidemiology
• Author(s): Dena Lynn Schanzer*+
• Companies: Public Health Agency of Canada
• Keywords: influenza ; infectious disease models ; age effects ; infectious disease transmission ; Public Health Policy

Abstract

The current consensus is that children drive the spread of influenza epidemics. Studies have shown that children have high clinical attack rates, high social contact rates and play a major role in introducing influenza infections into the household. Using empirical data on the age, sex, city and date of laboratory confirmed cases of seasonal influenza A in Canada, the peak in incidence was identified 1 week earlier in persons aged 10-29 years than for other age groups. In the H1N1 seasons, infections occurred 1 week earlier on average among 10-19 year olds, while in H3N2 seasons, infections occurred on average 5 days earlier among young adults, aged 20-29 years. Higher within age-class transmission rates among high-school aged students may fuel the spread of influenza within the community; though young adults and working aged adults may introduce the virus into communities.