ANALYSIS OF POPULATION IMMUNITYAGAINST INFLUENZA PRIOR TO 2014 AND 2015 EPIDEMIC SEASONS.

AIM: Control for the population herd immunity against seasonal influenza viruses as well as for emergence of antibodies against influenza with pandemic potential in human blood sera.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

HAI reaction against vaccine and epidemic influenza viruses as well as HPAI viruses A/rook/Chany/32/2015 (H5N1) (clade 2.3.2. lc.) andA/Anhui/01/2013 (H7N9).

RESULTS

Among all the sera samples collected in the autumn of 2014 and 2015, none had reacted in HAI against A(H5N 1) and A(H7N9) antigens even at 1:10 dilution. Among samples collected in autumn 2014, 41% were positive to A/California/07/09(H1Nlpdm9) virus, 36% - A/Texas/50/2012 (H3N2), 40% - B/Brisbane/60/2008 (Vict.lin.) and 47% reacted in HAI against the B/Massachusetts/2/2012 (Yam.lin.) strain. 22% of all the samples had a titer of at least 40 against all the antigens and only 10% in HAI had a titer of 40 or more against all the vaccine strains. Among the samples collected in autumn 2015, the number of seropositive against A/California/07/09(HlNlpdmO9) varied from 31% in the Urals FD to 46% in the Southern FD. The amount of seropositive against A/Switzerland/9715293/13 (H3N2) strain was at the level of 4 - 13% in all the FDs except Urals, where this parameter was slightly above 30%. The amount of seropositive against vaccine influenza B viruses varied from 23 to 76%. Only 2% of sera had titers in HAI of 40 or above against all the vaccine strains, 29% of all the samples were seronegative.

CONCLUSION

Population immunity in Russia against influenza A(H3N2) is at a very low level, thus socially significant consequences of influenza epidemics in many aspects will depend on the vaccination campaign of autumn 2016.