Helen L. Regnery

TL;DR: An avian H5N1 influenza A virus was isolated from a tracheal aspirate obtained from a 3-year-old child in Hong Kong with a fatal illness consistent with influenza, causing 87.5 to 100 percent mortality in experimentally inoculated White Plymouth Rock and White Leghorn chickens.

TL;DR: Examination and comparison of eight representative isolates from endemic disease areas and from regions with no known associated HFRS indicate that these viruses represent a new and unique group that constitutes a separate genus in the Bunyaviridae family of animal viruses.

TL;DR: It is concluded that development of antiviral resistance in immunocompromised individuals should be considered when they have been treated with antivirals and have shed influenza virus for a prolonged period and isolates from five of six patients were resistant.

Abstract: The antigenic and genetic characteristics of the haemagglutinins of influenza type B viruses isolated since 1988 during periods of both widespread activity (1990/1991) and sporadic activity (1989/1990) were examined using microneutralization tests and direct RNA sequencing. During 1989/1990, influenza B viruses representative of two distinct lineages antigenically and genetically related to either B/Victoria/2/87 or B/Yamagata/16/88 were isolated, and a minor drift variant of B/Yamagata/16/88, B/Hong Kong/22/89, was identified. In 1990/1991, B/Hong Kong/22/89- or B/Yamagata/16/88-like viruses accounted for the majority of the influenza virus isolates in most countries. Sequence analysis of the HA1 domains of representative viruses confirmed the containued existence of two main lineages among recent strains of influenza B virus and identified unique amino acid changes that could account for the altered antigenic reactivity of some variants. Sequence analysis of the HA2 domains of some of the recent influenza B viruses allowed for a comparison of the evolutionary rates and patterns between the HA1 and HA2 domains.

TL;DR: HIV infection was not statistically associated with influenza-like illness (ILI) and vaccination effectiveness was similar for HIV-infected and HIV-uninfected persons, and providers should continue to offer influenza vaccination to HIV- infected persons.