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Seasonal influenza during the COVID-19 pandemic in Bangladesh
  • +5
  • Zubair Akhtar,
  • Fahmida Chowdury,
  • Mahmudur Rahman,
  • Probir Ghosh,
  • M Ahmed,
  • Ariful Islam,
  • Joshua Mott,
  • William Davis
Zubair Akhtar
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research Bangladesh

Corresponding Author:zakhtar@icddrb.org

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Fahmida Chowdury
ICDDRB
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Mahmudur Rahman
ICDDRB
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Probir Ghosh
ICDDRB
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M Ahmed
ICDDRB
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Ariful Islam
International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease Research
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Joshua Mott
CDC
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William Davis
CDC
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Abstract

During the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020, limited data from several countries suggested reduced circulation of seasonal influenza viruses. We applied the moving epidemic method (MEM) to influenza surveillance data from 2016 to 2019 in Bangladesh to estimate an average seasonal influenza curve and establish epidemic thresholds. The 2020 influenza epidemic started 18 weeks later, was 7.5 weeks shorter, and was less intense than the average curve of the four previous years. These findings contribute to a limited but growing body of evidence that influenza seasons were altered globally in 2020.