The Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS), led by WHO, is used for the international virological and epidemiological surveillance of human influenza.
Seasonal influenza is a vaccine-preventable disease and annual influenza vaccination is the most effective way to prevent influenza. ECDC continues to emphasise that all Europeans who are recommended to have the influenza vaccine should get vaccinated.
The clinical surveillance of influenza in the European Influenza Surveillance Network (EISN) is generally based on reports made by sentinel general practitioners. Some of the sentinel surveillance systems also include paediatricians and physicians with other specialisations. The physicians usually represent 1-5% of physicians working in the country or region.
ECDC and World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for Europe have jointly developed the European Respiratory Virus Surveillance Summary (ERVISS), an interactive surveillance data dashboard for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), and severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) that also features a weekly epidemiological summary.
There are general objectives for integrated surveillance of respiratory viruses in the European Union. These objectives apply to surveillance of influenza, COVID-19, and other respiratory virus infections.
As autumn moves to winter, the WHO/Europe, EC and ECDC are issuing a clear, urgent message: people who remain unprotected against both COVID-19 and seasonal influenza – especially the most vulnerable and at-risk – should take up any offer for vaccination to prevent or mitigate the impact of these co-circulating respiratory infections.
Outsourced microbiological support to hospital-based surveillance of CDI aims to increase the capacity of laboratories in EU/EEA Member States to perform diagnostic practices with high diagnostic accuracy and acquire comparable typing data from C. difficile isolates.
The public health advice-making process on schools in Sweden during the COVID-19 pandemic from November 2020 to April 2021 has undergone an After-Action Review (AAR), with results now available in a new report by ECDC and the Public Health Agency of Sweden, Folkhälsomyndigheten.