Influenza outbreak control in confined settings

Influenza may rapidly disseminate within populations living in confined settings, causing considerable morbidity and disrupting daily activities. We describe an influenza A outbreak on a military base where 3,000 young adults, most of whom were unvaccinated, lived in close daily contact. Visits to the base clinic by 48 persons with acute respiratory illness within 2 days allowed early identification of this outbreak and prompted immediate epidemiologic investigation. Overall, 85 personnel (2.83% of base population) met the case definition for influenzalike illness. Onsite laboratory confirmation with field detection kits, rapid implementation of respiratory illness control protocols, and a mass vaccination campaign were applied to limit disease dissemination. The outbreak was halted 14 days after the mass vaccination campaign was completed. We review the control measures available for controlling influenza outbreaks in confined settings and discuss the role of rapid mass vaccination within this context.