Predicting virologically confirmed influenza using school absences in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, USA during the 2007-2015 influenza seasons.

Background: Children are important in community-level influenza transmission. School-based monitoring may inform influenza surveillance.

Methods: We used reported weekly confirmed influenza in Allegheny County during the 2007 and 2010-2015 influenza seasons using Pennsylvania's Allegheny County Health Department all-age influenza cases from health facilities, and all-cause and influenza-like illness (ILI)-specific absences from nine county school districts.