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The emergence of oseltamivir-resistant influenza A pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus highlights the need for rapid oseltamivir resistance screening. We report the development and validation of high-throughput real-time reverse transcriptase PCR assays for the detection of the H275Y substitution in the neuraminidase 1 gene that can be accomplished in 3 to 4 h.

While influenza A viruses comprise a heterogeneous group of clinically relevant influenza viruses, influenza B viruses form a more homogeneous cluster, divided mainly into two lineages: Victoria and Yamagata. This divergence has complicated seasonal influenza vaccine design, which traditionally contained two seasonal influenza A virus strains and one influenza B virus strain. We examined the distribution of the two influenza B virus lineages in Israel, between 2011-2014, in hospitalized and in non-hospitalized (community) influenza B virus-infected patients. We showed that influenza B virus infections can lead to hospitalization and demonstrated that during some winter seasons, both influenza B virus lineages circulated simultaneously in Israel. We further show that the influenza B virus Yamagata lineage was dominant, circulating in the county in the last few years of the study period, consistent with the anti-Yamagata influenza B virus antibodies detected in the serum samples of affected individuals residing in Israel in the year 2014. Interestingly, we found that elderly people were particularly vulnerable to Yamagata lineage influenza B virus infections.

We investigated coinfection of human bocavirus (HBoV) and other respiratory viruses in hospitalized children by real-time PCR. A high rate (69.2%) of adenovirus infection was found among children infected with HBoV. Such high rates of HboV-adenovirus coinfection have not been previously reported, underscoring the need to investigate the contribution of HBoV in patient clinical presentations.