Emergence of a novel subclade of influenza A(H3N2) virus in London, December 2016 to January 2017.

Emergence of a novel subclade of influenza A(H3N2) virus in London, December 2016 to January 2017.

Euro Surveill. 2017 Feb 23;22(8):

Authors: Harvala H, Frampton D, Grant P, Raffle J, Ferns RB, Kozlakidis Z, Kellam P, Pillay D, Hayward A, Nastouli E, ICONIC Consortium

Abstract
We report the molecular investigations of a large influenza A(H3N2) outbreak, in a season characterised by sharp increase in influenza admissions since December 2016. Analysis of haemagglutinin (HA) sequences demonstrated co-circulation of multiple clades (3C.3a, 3C.2a and 3C.2a1). Most variants fell into a novel subclade (proposed as 3C.2a2); they possessed four unique amino acid substitutions in the HA protein and loss of a potential glycosylation site. These changes potentially modify the H3N2 strain antigenicity.

PMID: 28251889 [PubMed - in process]

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