Beyond the Routine Influenza Surveillance

Choi, Sang-Ho

Thus far, the surveillance for acute respiratory illness has mainly focused on the burden and severity of influenza. Recent reports have demonstrated that respiratory viruses other than influenza viruses, such as rhinovirus, respiratory virus, parainfluenza virus, human metapneumovirus, coronavirus, and adenovirus, also have an important role in community-onset pneumonia and acute exacerbation of chronic obstructive lung disease [6] [7] [8] . Kang et al. also included a substantial number of non-influenza virus-related ILI and SARI cases. It should be noted that this study was performed during the influenza seasons only. If the surveillance was performed throughout the year, respiratory viruses that are common in warm seasons, such as parainfluenza virus type 3 and human metapneumovirus, would have been much more frequently identified. Furthermore, as we already observed during the MERS-coronavirus outbreak, an outbreak of non-influenza respiratory virus can be a real public health threat. It highlights the importance of implementing a high-quality surveillance system for SARI and pneumonia due to non-influenza respiratory viruses.