Influenza illness is caused by influenza A and influenza B strains. Although influenza A viruses are perceived to carry greater risk because they account for the majority of influenza cases in most seasons and have been responsible for influenza pandemics, influenza B viruses also impose a substantial public health burden, particularly among children and at-risk subjects. Furthermore, since the...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE An outbreak of influenza A and influenza B appeared at the beginning and end of 2006 in southern Taiwan. We conducted this study to test whether laboratory findings could differentiate influenza A from influenza B infection. METHODS All children aged 16 years or less, who had nasal and/or throat swabs sent from inpatient or outpatient settings at National Cheng Kung Uni...

Dear Editor-in-Chief, Influenza, commonly known as the flu, is an infectious disease caused by an influenza virus (1). Symptoms can be mild to severe (2). The most common symptoms include: high fever, runny nose, sore throat, muscle pains, headache, coughing, sneezing, and feeling tired (1). Three of the four types of influenza viruses affect people, Type A, Type B, and Type C (3, 4). Type D ha...

Sambucus nigra (elder) are broadly used species to treat microbial infections. Thepotential antiviral activity and mechanism action of elder fruit (EF) in human epithelium cell(A549) cultures infected with H9N2 influenza virus were determined. The effect of variousconcentrations of EF on influenza virus replication was examined by using virus titration,quantitative real time RT-PCR, fusion and ...

We describe the burden of influenza B infections in Italy over a 12-year study period. Influenza A and B viruses co-circulated throughout the period, with numbers of influenza B cases approaching or exceeding those of influenza A during three influenza seasons. Influenza B virus infections led to fewer admissions to an intensive care unit (ICU) and a lower mortality rate than influenza A from 2...

abstract : avian influenza virus (aiv) infection is a major cause of influenza mortality in birds and can cause human mortality and morbidity. although the risk of infection with avian influenza virus (aiv) is generally low for most people, the pathogenic virus can cross the species barrier and acquires the ability to infect and be transmitted among the human population; therefore the rapid ide...

Rapid and accurate diagnosis of influenza is important for infection control, as well as for patient management. Alere i Influenza A&B is an isothermal nucleic acid amplification-based integrated system for detection and differentiation of influenza virus A and influenza virus B. The performance of the Alere i Influenza A&B was screened using frozen nasopharyngeal-swab specimens collected in vi...

BACKGROUND Rapid influenza diagnostic tests (RIDTs) have an important role in clinical decision-making; however, the performances of currently available assays vary widely. OBJECTIVES We evaluated the performance of the Alere(™) i Influenza A&B (Alere(™) iNAT), a rapid isothermal nucleic acid amplification assay that has recently received FDA clearance, for the detection of influenza A and B ...

The nucleoprotein genes of influenza virus A/Netherlands/018/94 (H3N2) and influenza virus B/Harbin/7/94 were cloned into the bacterial expression vector pMalC to yield highly purified recombinant influenza virus A and B nucleoproteins. With these recombinant influenza nucleoproteins, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were developed for the detection of influenza virus A- and B-specif...