Surveillance and evolution of post-pandemic Influenza B virus circulating in Argentina

RUSSO MARA; PONTORIERO ANDREA; CAMPOS ANA; BENEDETTI ESTEFANIA; AVARO MARTIN; CZECH ANDREA; PERIOLO NATALIA,; SAVY, VILMA; BAUMEISTER, ELSA

Congreso; Options for the Control of Influenza VIII; 2013

Argentina has a country-wide surveillance system that collects and epidemiologicaldata. Virological surveillance is based on the year round sampling effort of the 65laboratories that form the Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses LaboratoryNetwork as part of the influenza surveillance system conducted by the NationalInfluenza Centre (NIC) that also depends of the Argentinean Ministry of Health.Antigenic and genomic analyses of clinical isolates performed by the NIC providesinformation about the evolution and geographic spread of newly emergingepidemic strains and ultimately help to identify suitable virus strains to be includedin the trivalent influenza vaccine.