Influenza virus characterisation Summary, Europe, September 2016

​In the course of the 2015–2016 influenza season, over 139 000 influenza detections across the Region have been reported. Influenza type A viruses have prevailed over type B with A(H1N1)pdm09 viruses, greatly outnumbering A(H3N2) and B/Victoria-lineage detections representing two-thirds of the type B viruses assigned to a lineage.
Since 1 January 2016, EU/EEA countries have shared 596 influenza-positive specimens with the Francis Crick Institute, London, for detailed characterisation. Since the July report, 47 viruses have been characterised antigenically and genetically.