Influenza species and subtypes circulation among hospitalized patients in Laleh hospital during two influenza seasonal (2016-2017 and 2017-2018) using a multiplex Real Time-Polymerase Chain Reaction

Azhar, Iman Rezaee; Mohraz, Minoo; Mardani, Masoud; Tavakoli, Mohammad Ali; Afshar, Amin Ehteshami; Zamani, Mohammad; Sadeghpoor, Simin; Safari, Saeid; Dadashpoor, Roozbeh; Rezaee, Mahsa; Shirvani, Fariba; Azimi, Shohreh; Heydarifard, Zahra; Ranjbar, Hamidreza Hagh; Lotfi, Amir Hossain; Mosadegh, Farhad; Hashemnejad, Farhad; Jazayeri, Seyed Mohammad

The 540 patients were grouped into two groups: flu positive (group I) and flu negative (group II). The differences of mean ages between groups I and II were not statistically significant (47.23±23.98 and 47.98±23.94, respectively, P=0.992) ( Table 1 ). Despite we observed several peaks of flu cases between age groups, flu infections were most prevalent in age groups 30-40 followed by 70-100 years old (Figure 2A) . Overall the period of study, flu A was the dominant type for <60 years old; however, for age groups >60 years old, flu B was the dominant type (Figure 2A) . Similarly, in period between 2016 and 2018, flu A was circulated among different age groups in 2016-2017 somehow different from flu B which was distributed mostly among older ages in 2017-2018 ( Figure 2B) . Also, gender difference between the two groups was not statistically significant (P=0.744) ( Table 1) . Histories of heart and pulmonary disorders, hypertension, diabetes mellitus and smoking were found in different proportions of patients, however, no significant differences were found between the two groups ( Table 1 , P=0.013). Regardless of fever, which was seen in all patients, in general common symptoms included body pain, myalgia, headache, chest pain, sore throat, cough and sputum. However, patients in group I suffered more from body pain and sore throat than patients in group II (P <0.001, Table 1 ).