Toolkit for investigation of cases of Avian influenza in humans

A reference document for responding to human cases of influenza A/H5N1

The overall public health strategy for dealing with H5N1 has three components

1. Control the infection in birds which people will come into contact with – usually domestic poultry,
2. Community mobilisation and education to reduce risk of human exposure to infected birds and
3. Case finding, investigation, surveillance, laboratory confirmation, treatment, patient isolation and infection control.

In order to increase preparedness to respond to possible cases and clusters of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza A/H5N1 in humans in Europe, the ECDC has prepared a reference document (Tool-kit) for the European Union member states.

This tool kit covers issues related to: case finding, investigation, surveillance, laboratory confirmation, treatment, patient isolation and infection control.

It has been drawn on the avian influenza work experience and produced documents from the WHO led international missions to Turkey (January and February 2006) and Iraq (February 2006) and on public health work experience.

We would like to acknowledge everyone who through discussions and comments has helped to shape this document both within ECDC, both in the Preparedness and Response Unit and the Influenza Horizontal Project Team, and beyond (MS experts, WHO, etc).

The intention now is that the Tool Kit should be tested by national authorities in Member States and comments on its use returned to influenza@ecdc.europa.eu. ECDC would welcome national authorities informing ECDC when the tool kit is used, through the 24h/7d duty system (E mail: support@ecdc.europa.eu; Phone: +46 841047878).