Explaining the age pattern of immunity to seasonal influenza

Add to your list(s) Download to your calendar using vCal

• Adam Kucharski, DAMTP
• Monday 30 April 2012, 11:30-12:30
• DD47, Cripps Court, Queens' College.

If you have a question about this talk, please contact Prof. Julia Gog.

The age pattern of immunity to seasonal influenza is striking but little understood. In contrast to many infections, the proportion of the population seropositive peaks in school age children, reaches a minimum between ages 35-65, and then rises again in older age groups. Heterogeneous mixing between age classes can have a profound effect on disease dynamics, and is hence the obvious candidate explanation for this pattern. However, using a mathematical model of multiple influenza strains, age dependent transmission based on mixing data from social contact surveys cannot on its own explain the observed data. Instead, seroprevalence may be a consequence of ‘original antigenic sin’; if the first infection of a lifetime dominates subsequent immune responses, it is possible to reproduce the relationship between age and immunity.

This talk is part of the Worms and Bugs series.

This talk is included in these lists:

• All CMS events
• All Talks (aka the CURE list)
• Cambridge Immunology
• Cambridge Infectious Diseases
• DD47, Cripps Court, Queens' College
• Worms and Bugs
• bld31

Note that ex-directory lists are not shown.