<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?><xml><records><record><source-app name="Biblio" version="7.x">Drupal-Biblio</source-app><ref-type>27</ref-type><contributors><authors><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Isabelle Thomas</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Cyril Barbezange</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Steven Van Gucht</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Jeannine Weyckmans</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Ilham Fdillate</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Reinout van Eycken</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Assia Hamouda</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Nathalie Bossuyt</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Sophie Quoilin</style></author><author><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Dieter Van Cauteren</style></author></authors></contributors><titles><title><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Virological surveillance of influenza in Belgium, season 2019-2020</style></title></titles><keywords><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">INFLUENZA</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">respiratory virus</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Surveillance</style></keyword><keyword><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">virology</style></keyword></keywords><dates><year><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2023</style></year><pub-dates><date><style  face="normal" font="default" size="100%">2023</style></date></pub-dates></dates><publisher><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Sciensano</style></publisher><pub-location><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">Brussels, Belgium</style></pub-location><pages><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">35</style></pages><language><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">eng</style></language><abstract><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">&lt;p&gt;The 2019-2020 winter season was characterized by the occurrence after the flu epidemic of the COVID-19 pandemic.&amp;nbsp; The Influenza epidemic in Belgium lasted 6 weeks and was a flu season of moderate intensity characterized by the co-circulation of A(H1N1)pdm09 and A(H3N2), with the predominance of A(H1N1). The epidemic threshold was crossed at &amp;nbsp;week 4-2020 (January 13 to January 19, 2020 with an incidence of 245 consultations /100.000 inhabitants and the peak was reached in week 5 with 550 consultations/100.000 inhabitants. After week 5- 2020, the incidence of ILI consultations decreased but remained above the threshold for several weeks likely due to the COVID-19 epidemic with a new ILI peak &amp;nbsp;at week 13 exceeding the influenza peak seen in &amp;nbsp;week 5 &amp;nbsp;(Fig. 1). The emergence of COVID-19, spreading through respiratory transmission, required the implementation of physical distancing measures likely contributed to an abrupt decline of the influenza season.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;The majority of the H1N1 viruses fell in the 6B.1A5A subgroup represented by the reference strain A/Norway/3433/2018.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;About half of the sequenced A(H3N2) viruses belonged to the clade 3C.2a1 and the remaining belonged to the &amp;nbsp;clade 3C.3a close the vaccine strain for the northern hemisphere A/Kansas/14/2017.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Most of &amp;nbsp;the seqenced influenza B-Victoria viruses were triple-deletion variants similar to B/Washington/02/2019. &amp;nbsp;&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Respiratory &amp;nbsp;samples were also analysed for other respiratory viruses. In the ILI population, &amp;nbsp;70 % of the patients were positive for at least one respiratory virus (including Influenza and co-infections). In the &amp;nbsp;SARI population, 52% of the patients were positive for at least one respiratory viruses (including influenza, SARS-COV-2, other respiratory viruses&amp;nbsp; or different combination of co-infection). From week 10 , the first SARS-CoV-2 patient were diagnosed.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;These patients were mostly adults and children above 14 years old.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;Severity was moderate in comparison to the previous season and comparable to previous seasons.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;None of the analyzed strains presented mutations known to be associated to resistance to antivirals neuraminidase inhibitors (Oseltamivir et Zanamivir).&lt;/p&gt;
</style></abstract><accession-num><style face="normal" font="default" size="100%">D/2023.14.440/88</style></accession-num></record></records></xml>