A Meta-analysis of the incidence of influenza reported during year 2005 to 2012 in China

Objective To investigate the epidemic patterns and the characteristics of influenza in Chi-na through a Meta-analysis based on the studies published in domestic literatures.Methods Related articles published during 2005 to 2012 were screened out from domestic databases and analyzed through a Meta-analysis with Review Manager 5.0 software.Results Twenty-two articles covering 957 901 patients with influenza-like-illness (ILI) and 148 233 pathogen samples were screened out according to the inclusion criteria.No significant difference with the ILI diagnosis rate was found between subjects at age 0-4 years and those at age 15-59 years. Higher ILI diagnosis rates were observed in those two groups as compared with subjects elder than 60 years old. Most of the pathogen samples were carried by subjects aged 25-59 years.More influenza virus strains were isola-ted in 2009 as compared with those of the seven other years (OR=2.25, 95%CI=1.27-3.70).There was sta-tistical difference between the numbers of influenza A H1N1 and seasonal influenza A strains (OR=2.25, 95%CI=1.30-3.91) .Significant difference was also observed between the numbers of influenza A and influenza B strains (OR=4.05, 95%CI=2.53-6.47).Conclusion There was significant difference with the diagnosis rate between subjects aged 0-4 years and those aged≥60 years.More attention should be paid to people at high risk of infection (0-4 years old and≥60 years old) and those at 25-29 years with high mobility and social inter-course for the timely prevention and control of pandemic influenza.The detection rate of influenza virus strains was increased during the outbreak of novel influenza A H1N1 infection in 2009.After that outbreak, the detec-tion rate of novel influenza A H1N1 strains was 2.25 times the rate of seasonal influenza strains.The detection rate of influenza A was 4.05 times the rate of influenza B virus strains.Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the surveillance for influenza A virus and other epidemic influenza virus strains.