MEETING THE CHALLENGE OF EMERGING PATHOGENS - THE ROLE OF THE UNITED-STATES-AIR-FORCE IN GLOBAL INFLUENZA SURVEILLANCE

Influenza virus is one of the most ubiquitous organisms on the planet, causing illness in much of the population each year. The dynamic natu re of the influenza virus requires similarly dynamic surveillance and prevention initiatives. The efforts of national surveillance programs, overseen by the World Health Organization and administered by institu tions such as the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. armed forces, and 60 to 70 collaborating laboratories, annually culminate in the development of effective influenza vaccines. The U.S. Air Force's contribution is via Project Gargle, through which bases i n various locations worldwide conduct active surveillance and submit t hroat swab specimens for virus isolation and characterization; the res ults of these laboratory analyses help determine the composition of th e following year's influenza vaccine, These collaborative efforts have resulted in an identical or close antigenic match between vaccine and epidemic strains in 8 of the last 9 influenza seasons.