Publications by authors named "Stacie N Jefferson"

Introduction: External Quality Assessment (EQA) schemes are designed to provide a snapshot of laboratory proficiency, identifying issues and providing feedback to improve laboratory performance and inter-laboratory agreement in testing. Currently there are no international EQA schemes for seasonal influenza serology testing. Here we present a feasibility study for conducting an EQA scheme for influenza serology methods.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A(H3N2) influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) was low during the 2016-19 seasons and varied by age. We analyzed neutralizing antibody responses to egg- and cell-propagated A(H3N2) vaccine and circulating viruses following vaccination in 375 individuals (aged 7 months to 82 years) across all vaccine-eligible age groups in 3 influenza seasons. Antibody responses to cell- versus egg-propagated vaccine viruses were significantly reduced due to the egg-adapted changes T160K, D225G, and L194P in the vaccine hemagglutinins.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: Since influenza often presents non-specifically in infancy, we aimed to assess the extent to which existing respiratory surveillance platforms might underestimate the frequency of severe influenza disease among infants.

Methods: The Influenza and Respiratory Syncytial Virus in Infants (IRIS) study was a prospective observational study done at four hospitals in Albania, Jordan, Nicaragua, and the Philippines. We included acutely ill infants aged younger than 1 year admitted to hospital within 10 days or less of illness onset during two influenza seasons (2015-16 and 2016-17) in Albania, Jordan, and Nicaragua, and over a continuous 34 week period (2015-16) in the Philippines.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Avian influenza viruses, notably H5 subtype viruses, pose a continuous threat to public health due to their pandemic potential. In recent years, influenza virus H5 subtype split vaccines with novel oil-in-water emulsion based adjuvants (e.g.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Background: The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic initially affected Mexico from April 2009 to July 2010. By August 2010, a fourth of the population had received the monovalent vaccine against the pandemic virus (A(H1N1)pdm09). To assess the proportion of the Mexican population who remained potentially susceptible to infection throughout the summer of 2010, we estimated the population seroprevalence to A(H1N1)pdm09 in a serosurvey of blood donors.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

It is well established that virus neutralizing (VN) antibodies to hemagglutinin (HA) antigens of influenza A viruses provide optimal protection against antigenically matched strains of influenza A viruses. In contrast, little is known about the potential role of HA-specific, non-neutralizing antibodies in protection against human influenza illness at present. In this study, we show that individuals vaccinated with the 2014-15 seasonal inactivated influenza vaccine displayed strong A/H3N2 HA-specific antibody-dependent cell-mediated cytotoxicity (ADCC) activities against an antigenically drifted H3N2 virus, despite poor induction of cross-reactive neutralizing antibodies against the antigenic variant.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF