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

DOI: https://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.



Last updated on 2025-27-01 at 19:07