External quality assessment of European SARS-CoV-2 and zoonotic influenza Bioinformatics (ESIB-EQA), 2024
SARS-CoV-2 and influenza viruses are significant public health threats with varying impacts on global health. SARS-CoV-2, the virus behind the COVID-19 pandemic, exhibits high transmissibility and recurrent waves driven by new variants.
Executive summary
Recent outbreaks of avian influenza in poultry and dairy cattle with cases of human infections highlight the importance of monitoring mutations and reassortment events in zoonotic influenza strains that may lead to increased human infections. Both SARS-CoV-2 and influenza challenge public health efforts due to their continuous evolution, necessitating ongoing surveillance, vaccine development, and strategic response measures.
Surveillance and laboratory networks
Surveillance for SARS-CoV-2 and influenza involves data collection, analysis, and interpretation to guide public health actions. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control sets surveillance objectives, including tracking disease trends, detecting outbreaks, evaluating prevention programs, identifying high-risk groups, and generating research hypotheses. External quality assessment (EQA) programmes support these objectives by ensuring laboratory accuracy and reliability.
ECDC coordinates the laboratory networks: The European COVID-19 reference laboratory network (ECOVIDLabNet) and the European Reference Laboratory Network for Human Influenza (ERLI-Net), both intended to enhance virological surveillance, laboratory capacity, and data sharing across Europe. These networks play a pivotal role in case detection, confirmation, and characterisation, contributing to effective public health responses.
Bioinformatics external quality assessment
The European SARS-CoV-2 and zoonotic influenza bioinformatics external quality assessment (ESIB-EQA) assesses the capability of laboratories in public health bioinformatics for SARS-CoV-2 and zoonotic influenza. It aims to provide troubleshooting advice and improve quality through training activities. This comprehensive approach to surveillance and quality assessment ensures preparedness for pandemics and major public health events, strengthening the overall capacity to manage SARS-CoV-2 and influenza effectively. This second iteration, conducted in 2024, focused on consensus sequence generation and quality control for both viruses, revealing several areas for improvement in laboratory practice.
