Epidemiology of repeat influenza infection in Queensland, Australia, 2005-2017

Natural infection with influenza virus is believed to generate cross-protective immunity across both types and subtypes. However, less is known about the persistence of this immunity and thus the susceptibility of individuals to repeat infection. We used 13 years (2005-2017) of surveillance data from Queensland, Australia, to describe the incidence and distribution of repeat influenza infections. Consecutive infections that occurred within 14 days of prior infection were considered a mixed infection; those that occurred more than 14 days later were considered separate (repeat) infections. Kaplan-Meier plots were used to investigate the probability of reinfection over time and the Prentice, Williams and Peterson extension of the Cox proportional hazards model was used to assess the association of age and gender with reinfection. Among the 188,392 notifications received during 2005-2017,