Emergence of a novel subclade of influenza A(H3N2) virus in London, December 2016 to January 2017.




Harvala H, Frampton D, Grant P, Raffle J, Ferns RB, Kozlakidis Z, Kellam P, Pillay D, Hayward A, Nastouli E, ICONIC Consortium

2017

Eurosurveillance

Euro surveillance : bulletin Europeen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin

Euro Surveill

22

8

1025-496X

1560-7917

DOIhttps://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.8.30466



We report the molecular investigations of a large influenza A(H3N2) outbreak, in a season characterised by sharp increase in influenza admissions since December 2016. Analysis of haemagglutinin (HA) sequences demonstrated co-circulation of multiple clades (3C.3a, 3C.2a and 3C.2a1). Most variants fell into a novel subclade (proposed as 3C.2a2); they possessed four unique amino acid substitutions in the HA protein and loss of a potential glycosylation site. These changes potentially modify the H3N2 strain antigenicity.



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