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Climatic factors and long-term trends of influenza-like illness rates in The Netherlands, 1970–2016

Journal Article · · Environmental Research
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  1. Netherlands Institute for Health Services Research (NIVEL), Utrecht (Netherlands)

Highlights: • We studied the link between climatic factors and influenza-like illness (ILI) rate. • In the Netherlands, ILI rates dropped during 1970–2003, then started to rise again. • Weekly ILI count was inversely associated with humidity and temperature. • The early 2000s were a trend-reversal point for the climatic time series as well. • Seasonal average ILI rates and humidity (or temperature) were inversely correlated. Climatic factors affect the survival and transmissibility of respiratory viruses causing influenza-like illness (ILI), and we hypothesized that changes in absolute humidity and temperature may affect long-term trends of ILI incidence rate in temperate countries. We tested this hypothesis using ILI and meteorological time series in the Netherlands for the period 1970–2016.

OSTI ID:
23110598
Journal Information:
Environmental Research, Journal Name: Environmental Research Vol. 167; ISSN ENVRAL; ISSN 0013-9351
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English