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. 2011 Jun;17(6):990-9.
doi: 10.3201/eid/1706.101161.

Use of antiviral drugs to reduce household transmission of pandemic (H1N1) 2009, United Kingdom

Richard G Pebody  1 , Ross Harris, George Kafatos, Mary Chamberland, Colin Campbell, Jonathan S Nguyen-Van-Tam, Estelle McLean, Nick Andrews, Peter J White, Edward Wynne-Evans, Jon Green, Joanna Ellis, Tim Wreghitt, Sam Bracebridge, Chikwe Ihekweazu, Isabel Oliver, Gillian Smith, Colin Hawkins, Roland Salmon, Bryan Smyth, Jim McMenamin, Maria Zambon, Nick Phin, John M Watson
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Free PMC article

Use of antiviral drugs to reduce household transmission of pandemic (H1N1) 2009, United Kingdom

Richard G Pebody et al. Emerg Infect Dis. .
Free PMC article
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Abstract

The United Kingdom implemented a containment strategy for pandemic (H1N1) 2009 through administering antiviral agents (AVs) to patients and their close contacts. This observational household cohort study describes the effect of AVs on household transmission. We followed 285 confirmed primary cases in 259 households with 761 contacts. At 2 weeks, the confirmed secondary attack rate (SAR) was 8.1% (62/761) and significantly higher in persons <16 years of age than in those >50 years of age (18.9% vs. 1.2%, p<0.001). Early (<48 hours) treatment of primary case-patients reduced SAR (4.5% vs. 10.6%, p = 0.003). The SAR in child contacts was 33.3% (10/30) when the primary contact was a woman and 2.9% (1/34) when the primary contact was a man (p = 0.010). Of 53 confirmed secondary case-patients, 45 had not received AV prophylaxis. The effectiveness of AV prophylaxis in preventing infection was 92%.

Figures

Figure 1
Flowchart of pandemic (H1N1) 2009 case-patients and household contacts, including contacts with respiratory symptoms, contacts from whom swab specimens were collected, and PCR result, United Kingdom, 2009. *Symptom onset date <2 weeks after index case-patient symptom onset; †46 persons had symptom onset date >2 weeks after index case-patient and 4 had missing symptom onset date; ‡5 persons had swabs taken >2 weeks after index case-patient symptom onset, and 3 had positive test results; §2 persons (neither positive) had swabs taken >2 weeks after index case-patient symptom onset; ¶3 persons (none positive) had swabs taken >2 weeks after index case-patient symptom onset.
Figure 2
Days from symptom onset date of household primary case-patient with pandemic (H1N1) 2009 virus infection until antiviral prophylaxis started, N = 352, United Kingdom, 2009.
Figure 3
Kaplan-Meier graphs of days from symptom onset in index case-patient until onset of symptoms in secondary case-patients, United Kingdom, 2009. A) Virologically confirmed pandemic (H1N1) 2009; B) clinical influenza-like illness; C) acute respiratory infection.
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