ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Public Health
Sec. Infectious Diseases: Epidemiology and Prevention
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2025.1662398
Class-acquired influenza is more severe than non-class-acquired influenza: a survey for multi-school teachers
Provisionally accepted
- Department of Pulmonary and Critical Care Medicine, Xijing Hospital, Air-Force Medical University, Xi'an, China
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1)Background: During the influenza season, teachers have a higher infection rate of influenza than the general population. However, there has been no study on the clinical characteristics of this specific influenza in infection type—"class-acquired influenza", which means teachers acquire influenza infection from exposure to a substantial quantity of influenza virus aerosols in enclosed classrooms by teaching activities in a short period of time. 2) Methods: In this study, teachers who had suffered from influenza during the 2024-2025 Seasonal Influenza from 12 schools in Xi'an, a city in northern China, were retrospectively collected through a questionnaire. They were divided into a class-acquired influenza group and a non-class-acquired influenza group, and then compared the clinical features and effects between these two groups. 3) Results: Class-acquired cases showed higher incidence of symptoms, such as fever, cough, malaise, abdominal pain and diarrhea, and showed greater severity of symptoms like dry throat, runny nose and sputum. The class-acquired influenza group had longer recovery time (7.0 [5.0,14.0] vs. 6.5 [5.0,10.0] days, p=0.003), and required more medical visits (69.9% vs. 52.3%, p=0.004), medication (74.7% vs. 62.4%, p=0.035), and sick leave (47.9% vs. 28.4%, p<0.001). Incubation period (onset) showed no difference (p=0.245). 4) Conclusion: Class-acquired influenza is a specific type in teachers. Compared to non-class-acquired influenza, it involves worse symptoms, longer duration, higher healthcare needs, and more absenteeism, likely related to the unique working conditions and environment. Therefore, during the influenza season, schools and teachers should focus on rational prevention, early diagnosis and medication.
Keywords: influenza, Respiratory Infections, School teachers, Epidemiologic Studies, schoolhealth services
Received: 09 Jul 2025; Accepted: 22 Sep 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Song, Jin, Zhao, Ma, Wu, Meng, Li, Cai, Yang and Li. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Liqiang Song, songlq163@163.com
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