Military personnel and young people had higher swine flu infection rates when the disease swept Singapore in 2009, a new study finds.
In blood samples drawn before or early in the epidemic, high levels of titers were found in 2.6% of the general population, 9.4% of military personnel, 6.6% of hospital staff, and 6.7% of people at long-term care facilities. Titer is a term used to describe the concentration of antibodies in the blood.
Researchers looked for a fourfold increase in antibody titers over time in the second or third blood sample to indicate that a person had developed a new case of swine flu infection during the epidemic time period. The researchers say 13% of people in the community participating in the study developed a new swine flu infection during the epidemic, a finding that “supports the case for targeted vaccination in populations.”
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