Influenza is a contagious respiratory illness caused by influenza viruses that infect the nose, throat, and sometimes the lungs. It can cause mild to severe illness, and at times can lead to death. The best way to prevent flu is by getting a flu vaccine each year.
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.
The joint annual influenza surveillance meeting by ECDC and the WHO Regional Office for Europe took place on 6 - 8 June 2018 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Invited participants were epidemiological and virological surveillance experts nominated by national health authorities as well as representatives from international institutions, covering the 53 countries of the EU/EEA and the WHO European region. The meeting was by invitation only.
No human cases of avian influenza were reported in the EU/EEA. Human cases of avian influenza A(H5N1) were reported from Egypt and A(H7N9) infections from mainland China, Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (SAR) and Taiwan.
Influenza vaccination coverage among high-risk groups has dropped in the European Region over the last seven years, and half the countries report a decrease in the number of vaccine doses available.
This guide is intended for use by those involved in pandemic preparedness planning, generic preparedness and implementation of IHR core capacities in European countries. The document describes good practice for pandemic preparedness planning based on lessons learned from the 2009 pandemic.
This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 12-18 November 2017 and includes updates on Legionnaires' disease, influenza, West Nile fever, chikungunya, yellow fever, plague, monkeypox, marburg virus disease, malaria and cholera.
Influenza pandemics, whether mild, moderate or severe, affect a large proportion of the population and require a multisectoral response over several months or even years. For this reason, countries develop plans describing their strategies for responding to a pandemic supported by operational plans at national and subnational levels.