The US initiative raises the question of whether there should be a similar initiative in Europe, for example in support of the E.U. Council Recommendation on Seasonal Influenza Immunization
On the 22 November 2011, ECDC organised a workshop at the European Parliament to provide policy makers with more information on the facts about seasonal influenza vaccination and on ECDC’s contributions to the implementation of the 2009 Council Recommendation on this subject.
The objective of the meeting was to give a strategic and functional view on how the European Influenza Surveillance Network should implement the molecular surveillance of human influenza in Europe in detail and at what level.
Following an earlier consultation document issued in March 2011 the UK’s Secretary of State for Health, along with the UK’s developed administrations (N. Ireland, Scotland and Wales) published a new influenza pandemic strategy on 10 November.
While Europe is experiencing low influenza activity a new study presenting global estimates of the burden of respiratory infections due to seasonal influenza in young children has been published online by the Lancet on the 11 November 2011