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Epidemics of two Victoria and Yamagata influenza B lineages in Yamagata, Japan

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 July 2004

K. MIZUTA ,
T. ITAGAKI ,
C. ABIKO ,
T. MURATA ,
T. TAKAHASHI  and
S. MURAYAMA
K. MIZUTA
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology, Yamagata Parefectural Institute of Public Health, 1-6-6 Tokamachi, Yamagata, 990-0031 Japan
T. ITAGAKI
Affiliation:
Yamanobe Paediatric Clinic, Yamanobe 2908-14, Yamagata, 990-0301 Japan
C. ABIKO
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology, Yamagata Parefectural Institute of Public Health, 1-6-6 Tokamachi, Yamagata, 990-0031 Japan
T. MURATA
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology, Yamagata Parefectural Institute of Public Health, 1-6-6 Tokamachi, Yamagata, 990-0031 Japan
T. TAKAHASHI
Affiliation:
Department of Public Health, Yamagata University School of Medicine, 2-2-2 Iida-Nishi, Yamagata, 990-9585 Japan
S. MURAYAMA
Affiliation:
Department of Microbiology, Yamagata Parefectural Institute of Public Health, 1-6-6 Tokamachi, Yamagata, 990-0031 Japan
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Abstract

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We attempted to predict epidemics of influenza B, focusing on B/Victoria/2/87-like (V) and B/Yamagata/16/88-like (Y) lineages, in Yamagata, Japan. We collected 9624 nasopharyngeal swabs for virus isolation from patients with respiratory infections between 1996 and 2003 and 237 sera for seroepidemiological analysis by haemagglutination–inhibition test in 2001. We isolated 424 V-lineage and 246 Y-lineage viruses during the study period. Three herald viruses in the 2000–2001 season enabled us to predict a V-lineage epidemic in the following season. However, another V-lineage epidemic occurred in the 2002–2003 season, although we caught four herald Y-lineage viruses, whose antigenic drift was suggested by seroepidemiological study, at the end of the previous season. Since the epidemiology of the two influenza B lineages remains unclear, a careful watch should be kept on these lineages in order to provide effective public-health strategies against future epidemics.

Type
Research Article
Information
Epidemiology & Infection , Volume 132 , Issue 4 , August 2004 , pp. 721 - 726
Copyright
2004 Cambridge University Press