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The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2 continues to have a major impact on healthcare and social systems throughout the world. As the clinical and epidemiological features of COVID-19 have many parallels with influenza, it is important to ensure optimal management of both respiratory diseases as we anticipate their continued co-circulation. In particular, there is a need to ensure that effective surveillance and diagnostic capacities are in place to monitor these and other respiratory viruses, as this will underpin decisions on the appropriate clinical management of the respective diseases. As such, we propose a series of key recommendations for stakeholders, public health authorities, primary care physicians and surveillance bodies that will help mitigate the combined risks of concurrent influenza epidemics and the COVID-19 pandemic. We advocate the judicious use of influenza vaccines and antivirals, particularly among groups at high risk of complications, with healthcare workers also considered a priority for vaccination. It is likely that the increased use of emerging technologies such as telemedicine and contact tracing will permanently change our approach to managing infectious disease. The use of these technologies, alongside existing pharmaceutical strategies, will ensure that we achieve a holistic approach to the global public health measures needed to deal with the combined threat of influenza and COVID-19. Ensuring that this approach is optimal will be key as we move from a reactive pandemic response towards preparing for the long-term management of the remarkable clinical burden associated with these respiratory pathogens., (© 2020 The Authors. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

This review highlights the main points which emerged from the presentations and discussions at the 3rd isirv-Antiviral Group Conference - advances in clinical management. The conference covered emerging and potentially pandemic influenza viruses and discussed novel/pre-licensure therapeutics and currently approved antivirals and vaccines for the control of influenza. Current data on approved and novel treatments for non-influenza respiratory viruses such as MERS-CoV, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and rhinoviruses and the challenges of treating immunocompromised patients with respiratory infections was highlighted., (© 2014 The Authors. Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Influenza viruses collected from regions of Asia, Africa and Oceania between 2009 and 2012 were tested for their susceptibility to two new neuraminidase inhibitors, peramivir and laninamivir. All viruses tested had normal laninamivir inhibition. However, 3·2% (19/599) of A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses had highly reduced peramivir inhibition (due to H275Y NA mutation) and <1% (6/1238) of influenza B viruses had reduced or highly reduced peramivir inhibition, with single occurrence of variants containing I221T, A245T, K360E, A395E, D432G and a combined G145R+Y142H mutation. These data demonstrate that despite an increase in H275Y variants in 2011, there was no marked change in the frequency of peramivir- or laninamivir-resistant variants following the market release of the drugs in Japan in 2010.

Background & Objective: During the temperate out-of-season months in Australia in late 2010 and early 2011, an unprecedented high number of influenza notifications were recorded. We aimed to assess the significance of these notifications., Methods: For Australia, we used laboratory-confirmed cases notified to the WHO FluNet surveillance tool; the percentage of these that were positive; notifications by state and influenza type and subtype; and surveillance data from Google FluTrends. For the state of Victoria, we used laboratory-confirmed notified cases and influenza-like illness (ILI) proportions. We compared virus characterisation using haemagglutination-inhibition assays and phylogenetic analysis of the haemagglutinin gene for seasonal and out-of-season notifications., Results: The increase in notifications was most marked in tropical and subtropical Australia, but the number of out-of-season notifications in temperate Victoria was more than five times higher than the average of the previous three seasons. However, ILI proportions in spring-summer were not different to previous years. All out-of-season viruses tested were antigenically and genetically similar to those tested during either the 2010 or 2011 influenza seasons. An increase in the number of laboratories testing for influenza has led to an increase in the number of tests performed and cases notified., Conclusion: An increase in influenza infections in spring-summer of 2010-11 in tropical and temperate Australia was not associated with any differences in virus characterisation compared with viruses that circulated in the preceding and following winters. This increase probably reflected a natural variation in out-of-season virus circulation, which was amplified by increased laboratory testing., (© 2012 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)