Flu News Europe: Weekly influenza updates
Flu News Europe - Joint ECDC and WHO/Europe weekly influenza update
During the influenza transmission season ECDC and the WHO Regional Office for Europe jointly reports on the influenza situation in the wider European region which covers the 53 countries of the WHO European Region (including the EU/EEA Member States).
The reports are published weekly on the website Flu News Europe and provide key data and analysis on a variety of issues including:
- A summary of the influenza intensity, spread and dominant virus type/subtype,
- Sentinel surveillance of influenza-like illness and acute respiratory illness in primary care settings,
- Hospital surveillance of severe influenza cases and related mortality surveillance,
- Virus characteristics. The virus characteristics data provide information on the extent of the similarity to the vaccine virus strains, and accordingly vaccine effectiveness, pathogenicity, and susceptibility to antiviral treatments.
- ECDC also regularly publishes stand-alone, detailed virus characterisation reports.
Weekly influenza infographics - EU/EEA surveillance data
An infographic summarising the situation in the EU Member States, is also available on the ECDC website, see the updates below.
Weekly influenza updates for the period 2003 - 2013
Weekly electronic bulletins (2003-2009)
The Weekly Electronic Bulletin was written by the European Influenza Surveillance Scheme Co-ordination Centre from the 2003–04 to the 2008–09 season. It was reviewed by clinical, epidemiological and virological experts. If you like to read the weekly electronic bulletins, please get in contact with webmaster@ecdc.europa.eu.
Weekly Influenza Surveillance Overview
From the start of the 2009–10 season, the bulletin changed format and became the Weekly Influenza Surveillance Overview (WISO). At the start of the 2014–15 season, the WISO was replaced by Flu News Europe, which is produced jointly with the WHO Regional Office for Europe.
About influenza surveillance
ECDC is an EU agency whose mandate includes the coordination of EU surveillance networks and the identification, assessment, and communication of current and emerging threats to human health from communicable diseases.
ECDC collects epidemiological and virological data from the EU/EEA Member States. The surveillance data reported comes largely from sentinel influenza surveillance systems, which cover a subset of the population in each country. Some countries conduct universal influenza surveillance, meaning that all cases meeting the relevant case definition are reported. Several countries also conduct surveillance of hospitalised cases. A sample of cases is also tested to determine virus characteristics.
The weekly surveillance of seasonal influenza is complemented by epidemic intelligence activities at ECDC, which encompass monitoring of official and unofficial sources on outbreaks and other influenza-related developments.