This page is listing influenza pandemic preparedness plans for EU countries, EFTA countries, Candidate countries and from the Commission of the European Communities and the World Health Organization.
A pandemic is the rapid spread of a new human influenza around the world. Influenza pandemics happen when a new strain of a flu virus appears which can infect humans, to which most people have no immunity and which can transmit efficiently from human to human.
In March 2013, Chinese authorities announced the identification of a novel reassortant A(H7N9) influenza virus in patients in eastern China. Since then, human cases have continued to be reported, and as of 7 February 2014 (Figure 1), there have been 308 laboratory-confirmed cases: Zhejiang (122), Guangdong (54), Shanghai (42), Jiangsu (36), Fujian (19), Hunan (7), Jiangxi (5), Henan (4), Anhui (4) ,Beijing (3), Shandong (2), Hebei (1), Guangxi (2), Guizhou (1), Hong Kong (4) and Taiwan (2). In addition, the virus has been detected in one asymptomatic case in Beijing.
In July 2012, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control initiated a Europe-wide investigation on a Salmonella Stanley outbreak, together with the affected Member States, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Reference Laboratory for Salmonella (EURL Salmonella).
During the 1918-1920 influenza pandemic all populations experienced an increase in influenza related deaths. However that mortality varied considerably between different locations and demographic subgroups.
This small study performed at two tertiary care teaching hospitals in New York, compares and evaluates the risk of Influenza A (H1N1) pdm09 infection among front line health care professionals and non health care professionals in the 2009 pandemic.
Following a meeting of the global influenza collaborating centres in Beijing hosted by the newest Centre that in China the World Health Organization (WHO) recently recommended that influenza vaccines to be used in the 2013 Southern Hemisphere (SH) influenza season should contain the same three strains as the vaccines that now are being used in the Northern Hemisphere (NH).
Since July 2011, 155 cases of the variant influenza A(H3N2) virus (A(H3N2)v) have been detected in the US: Hawaii (1), Indiana (113), Iowa (3), Maine (2), Ohio (30), Pennsylvania (3), Utah (1), and West Virginia (2). Most cases reported in Indiana and Ohio are recent cases. No human to human transmission has been determined among these recent cases.