Pilot of asymptomatic swabbing of humans following exposures to confirmed avian influenza A(H5) in avian species in England, 2021/2022

Fernando Capelastegui*, Julianna Smith, Jharna Kumbang, Clare Humphreys, Simon Padfield, Jonathan Turner, Andrew Mumford, Nick Richardson, Isabel Oliver, Gavin Dabrera

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

4 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

A programme of asymptomatic swabbing was piloted in 2021/2022 in England to further understand the risk of human infection with avian influenza in exposed individuals and to evaluate this surveillance approach as a public health measure. There were challenges in deploying this pilot that will need to be addressed for future seasons. However, there was one detection of avian influenza A(H5N1) in a human despite low uptake in eligible exposed persons. Future use of asymptomatic swabbing could help provide an evidence base to quantify asymptomatic infection, quickly identify signals of increased animal to human transmission and improve public health preparedness.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere13187
JournalInfluenza and other Respiratory Viruses
Volume17
Issue number8
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Aug 2023

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2023 Crown copyright. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd. This article is published with the permission of the Controller of HMSO and the King's Printer for Scotland.

Keywords

  • A(H5N1)
  • England
  • asymptomatic testing
  • avian influenza
  • emerging disease
  • surveillance

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