COVID-19 pandemic interventions reshaped the global dispersal of seasonal influenza viruses
The global dynamics of seasonal influenza viruses inform the design of surveillance, intervention, and vaccination strategies. The COVID-19 pandemic provided a singular opportunity to evaluate how influenza circulation worldwide was perturbed by human behavioral changes. We combine molecular, epidemiological, and international travel data and find that the pandemic's onset led to a shift in the intensity and structure of international influenza lineage movement. During the pandemic, South Asia played an important role as a phylogenetic trunk location of influenza A viruses, whereas West Asia maintained the circulation of influenza B/Victoria. We explore drivers of influenza lineage dynamics across the pandemic period and reasons for the possible extinction of the B/Yamagata lineage. After a period of 3 years, the intensity of among-region influenza lineage movements returned to pre-pandemic levels, with the exception of B/Yamagata, after the recovery of global air traffic, highlighting the robustness of global lineage dispersal patterns to substantial perturbation.
Authors
- Louis du Plessis (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0352-6289)
- Joseph L.-H. Tsui (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7871-8627)
- Jun Cai (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9495-1226)
- Sumali Bajaj (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8313-819X)
- Bernardo Gutiérrez
- Philippe Lemey (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2826-5353)
- Marc A. Suchard (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9818-479X)
- Moritz U. G. Kraemer (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8838-7147)
- Zhiyuan Chen (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0001-6753-5606)
- Hongjie Yu (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6335-5648)
- Oliver G. Pybus (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8797-2667)
- Xiaowei Deng (ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9892-2470)
- Simón Busch Moreno
Institutions
- SIB Swiss Institute of Bioinformatics (CH)
- Royal Veterinary College (GB)
- University of California, Los Angeles (US)
- Rega Institute for Medical Research (BE)
- Fudan University (CN)
- ETH Zurich (CH)
- University of Oxford (GB)
- Huashan Hospital (CN)
- Universidad San Francisco de Quito (EC)
- Nanjing Medical University (CN)
- KU Leuven (BE)
Publication Details
- Journal
- Science
- Published
- 2024-11-07
- DOI
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.adq3003
- Citations
- 81
- Primary Topic
- Influenza Virus Research Studies
- Type
- article
- Field-Weighted Citation Impact
- 31.32
Funders
- Rockefeller Foundation
- GlaxoSmithKline
- Sanofi
- Wellcome Trust
- University of Oxford
- European Commission
- National Natural Science Foundation of China
- Fudan University
- Natural Science Foundation for Young Scientists of Shanxi Province
- National Institutes of Health
- Sanofi Pasteur
- HORIZON EUROPE Framework Programme
- Young Scientists Fund