| Popis: |
Qualitative evaluation and quantitative determination of antibody to respiratory pathogens represents a substantial part of research and applied virology. These investigations can serve quite different purposes. Epidemiologists need the serological data necessary for the control of influenza and other respiratory infections and for elucidating aetiological peculiarities of past infections. A system of constant surveillance of influenza morbidity and seroepidemiological status of the population has been organized in the USSR. The herd immunity is assessed as to circulating influenza viruses and some older strains which have gone out of circulation. The results obtained are important not only for current epidemiological analysis, but also because they enable the prognosis, to some extent, of the epidemic process, the evaluation of danger in shift of influenza viruses when their reappearance in the circulation is anticipated, as was the case in 1976 in the USA and in 1977 in China and in the USSR. |
