Asymmetric post-pandemic recovery of influenza A and B since 2020 in Hong Kong: an interrupted time-series (ITS) analysis of weekly surveillance data with subtype and lineage characterization
Ling Yang, Muhammad Riaz, Najm Ur Rahman · 2026
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Description
Yang and co-authors traced how influenza returned to Hong Kong after COVID-19 crushed flu seasons worldwide, using weekly laboratory surveillance data from 2014 to 2024. Their 2026 analysis separated influenza A from influenza B and broke each down further by subtype and lineage. A statistical method called interrupted time-series measured how the trend bent when the pandemic began in early 2020.
Both flu types collapsed in early 2020, with influenza B falling further than A in the Hong Kong data analyzed. Influenza A then climbed back over later years with returning seasonal peaks, alternating between its H1 and H3 subtypes from season to season. Influenza B stayed low through most of the post-2020 period, and among its characterized viruses nearly all belonged to the Victoria lineage, while Yamagata was not found at all in later data.
Catalog record
| CREATOR | Ling Yang, Muhammad Riaz, Najm Ur Rahman |
|---|---|
| YEAR | 2026 |
| COLLECTION | PAPERS |
| FORMAT | TXT |
| FILE SIZE | 47 KB |
| VERSION | 1.0 |
| LICENSE | CC BY 4.0 |
| RIGHTS | CC BY |
| SOURCE | Europe PMC |