Weekly Influenza Surveillance Overview, 29 April 2011 - Week 16

The influenza activity of the 2010-11 season is now drawing to a close in European countries.For week 16/2011, all 23 countries reporting influenza intensity experienced low activity. Lithuania and the UK (Northern Ireland) reported increasing trends, while 21 countries and the UK (England and Scotland) reported decreasing or unchanging trends. During week 16/2011, of four influenza viruses detected in sentinel specimens, three were influenza B and one was influenza A. For more than a month, influenza B viruses have been detected more frequently than influenza A viruses.Two countries reported a total of nine hospitalised cases with a severe acute respiratory infection, of which two were due to influenza infection.