Obesity Increases the Duration of Influenza A Virus Shedding in Adults
Open Access
- 2 August 2018
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Oxford University Press (OUP) in The Journal of Infectious Diseases
- Vol. 218 (9), 1378-1382
- https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiy370
Abstract
Epidemiologic studies indicate that obesity increases the risk of severe complications and death from influenza virus infections, especially in elderly individuals. This work investigates the effect of obesity on the duration of viral shedding within household transmission studies in Managua, Nicaragua, over 3 seasons (2015–2017). Symptomatic obese adults were shown to shed influenza A virus 42% longer than nonobese adults (adjusted event time ratio [ETR], 1.42; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06–1.89); no association was observed with influenza B virus shedding duration. Even among paucisymptomatic and asymptomatic adults, obesity increased the influenza A shedding duration by 104% (adjusted ETR, 2.04; 95% CI, 1.35–3.09). These findings suggest that obesity may play an important role in influenza transmission.Keywords
Funding Information
- National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (R01 AI120997, HHSN272201400006C)
- Fogarty International Center (K02TW009483)
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