The 2010/11 seasonal influenza epidemics in Europe are dominated so far by the A(H1N1)2009 viruses which emerged in the 2009 pandemic, although these are now considered seasonal viruses. This is an interim risk assessment and will be up-dated at intervals as more data and analyses emerge.

Likely scenarios and uncertainties in the 2010/2011 influenza season in Europe and beyond.

The meeting report covers health communication strategies that could be undertaken to better promote influenza prevention measures and the healthcare professionals’ role in the uptake of seasonal influenza vaccination.

Reporting on 2009 surveillance data and 2010 epidemic intelligence data

New strain of swine influenza identified in two workers on a pig farm in Canada.  Swine influenza (SI) is an acute viral infection of the respiratory tract in pigs. Subclinical infections are also common. The mortality is low and recovery usually occurs within 7-10 days.

This report, originally published by WHO/Europe, summarizes ECDC and WHO/Europe's first joint influenza surveillance meeting, held on 7-9 June 2011 and hosted by the Slovenian Ministry of Health.

ECDC produces an annual risk assessment for the seasonal influenza epidemics in Europe. This is following both a recommendation in the report on the handling of the 2009 pandemic adopted by the World Health Assembly in May 2011 and the model developed by ECDC during that pandemic. The first EU seasonal influenza risk assessment was published in January 2011, following the start of the influenza season in late November 2010. In 2012, the season started later than in most years, with the first five countries exceeding their epidemic threshold in week 3/2012.

​The virological influenza pattern observed was not consistent enough to make a clear prediction for the 2011-2012 season in Europe. In general, the findings on the impact of influenza in the southern hemisphere in 2011 were reassuring for Europe, and the match of the A(H3N2) viruses with the vaccine was considered good.

This report summarises the results from two epidemiological studies conducted by the Vaccine Adverse Event Surveillance and Communication (VAESCO) Consortium undertaken in eight European Union (EU)/European Economic Area (EEA) countries in order to investigate a possible association between an unexpected increase in narcolepsy cases following the use of influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccines. Narcolepsy is an underdiagnosed disease of widely unknown etiology.

This report summarises the results from two epidemiological studies to investigate a possible association between an unexpected increase in narcolepsy cases following the use of the influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 vaccines. The studies were conducted by the Vaccine Adverse Event Surveillance and Communication (VAESCO) Consortium under the auspices of ECDC and undertaken in Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and the United Kingdom. This Technical Report In Brief accompanies the full Report ‘Narcolepsy in association with pandemic influenza vaccination- A multi-country European epidemiological investigation’.