Understanding the likely population impact of new and improved influenza vaccines

This thesis includes studies of four novel influenza A subtypes which infected diverse population cohorts at various time points. The novel analytic approaches used facilitate better understanding of transmission and survival characteristics of influenza viruses in human populations, competition between influenza subtypes, and evolution of influenza A viruses over time via long-term selection of CD8+ T cell epitopes. This work has added new knowledge regarding influenza survival in the human population that may be useful in the development of ‘universal’ influenza vaccines based on CD8+ T cell immunogenic peptides and their potential population impact