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Epidemiology of influenza in Ethiopia: findings from influenza sentinel surveillance and respiratory infection outbreak investigations, 2009–2015

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Infectious Diseases, September 2018
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  • Above-average Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (62nd percentile)
  • Good Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (68th percentile)

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Title
Epidemiology of influenza in Ethiopia: findings from influenza sentinel surveillance and respiratory infection outbreak investigations, 2009–2015
Published in
BMC Infectious Diseases, September 2018
DOI 10.1186/s12879-018-3365-5
Pubmed ID
Authors

Abyot Bekele Woyessa, Mesfin Mengesha, Desalegn Belay, Adamu Tayachew, Workenesh Ayele, Berhane Beyene, Woubayehu Kassa, Etsehiwot Zemelak, Gelila Demissie, Berhanu Amare, Lucy Boulanger, Carolina Granados, Thelma Williams, Israel Tareke, Soatiana Rajatonirina, Daddi Jima

Abstract

Influenza is an acute viral disease of the respiratory tract which is characterized by fever, headache, myalgia, prostration, coryza, sore throat and cough. Globally, an estimated 3 to 5 million cases of severe influenza illness and 291 243-645 832 seasonal influenza-associated respiratory deaths occur annually. Although recent efforts from some African countries to describe burden of influenza disease and seasonality, these data are missing for the vast majority, including Ethiopia. Ethiopia established influenza sentinel surveillance in 2008 aiming to determine influenza strains circulating in the country and know characteristics, trend and burden of influenza viruses. We used influenza data from sentinel surveillance sites and respiratory disease outbreak investigations from 2009 to 2015 for this analysis. We obtained the data by monitoring patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) at three health-centers, severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) at five hospitals and investigating patients during different respiratory infection outbreaks. Throat-swab specimens in viral transport media were transported to the national reference laboratory within 72 h of collection using a cold-chain system. We extracted viral RNA from throat-swabs and subjected to real-time PCR amplification. We further subtyped and characterized Influenza A-positive specimens using CDC real-time reverse transcription PCR protocol. A total of 4962 throat-swab samples were collected and 4799 (96.7%) of them were tested. Among them 988 (20.6%) were influenza-positive and of which 349 (35.3%) were seasonal influenza A(H3N2), 321 (32.5%) influenza A(H1N1)pdm2009 and 318 (32.0%) influenza B. Positivity rate was 29.5% in persons 5-14 years followed by 26.4% in 15-44 years, 21.2% in > 44 years and 6.4% in under five children. The highest positivity rate observed in November (37.5%) followed by March (27.6%), December (26.4%), October (24.4%) and January (24.3%) while the lowest positivity rate was in August (7.7%). In Ethiopia, seasonal Influenza A(H3N2), Influenza A(H1N1)pdm2009 and Influenza B viruses were circulating during 2009-2015. Positivity rate and number of cases peaked in November and December. Influenza is one of public health problems in Ethiopia and the need to introduce influenza vaccine and antivirus is important to prevent and treat the disease in future.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 4 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 90 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Unknown 90 100%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 14 16%
Researcher 13 14%
Student > Bachelor 10 11%
Student > Ph. D. Student 6 7%
Other 5 6%
Other 16 18%
Unknown 26 29%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 15 17%
Nursing and Health Professions 14 16%
Immunology and Microbiology 8 9%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 4 4%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 3 3%
Other 21 23%
Unknown 25 28%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 4. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 April 2020.
All research outputs
#7,062,183
of 23,103,436 outputs
Outputs from BMC Infectious Diseases
#2,286
of 7,752 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#123,182
of 335,674 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Infectious Diseases
#44
of 158 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 23,103,436 research outputs across all sources so far. This one has received more attention than most of these and is in the 68th percentile.
So far Altmetric has tracked 7,752 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 10.3. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 69% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 335,674 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 62% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 158 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 68% of its contemporaries.