As of September 2008, the responsibility for the former activities of the European Influenza Surveillance Scheme (EISS) has been transferred to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).
The activities aim to contribute to reducing the burden of disease associated with influenza in Europe and include collection and exchange of timely information on influenza activity, contribution to the annual determination of the influenza vaccine content, provision of relevant information about influenza to health professionals and the general public and contribution to European influenza pandemic preparedness activities. ECDC also operates the Community Network of Reference Laboratories for Human Influenza.
Following recommendations by WHO and the July meeting of the Studies and Surveillance in a Pandemic (SSiaP) group, as of this week, three new types of influenza surveillance data can be reported to TESSy in addition to the ILI/ARI sentinel and virological data:
- SARI: influenza-positive Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (to be reported by countries with exhaustive or sentinel hospital surveillance)
- Aggregate Reporting of confirmed cases and deaths due to pandemic (H1N1) 2009 influenza (to be reported by countries that are still counting each confirmed case and death; this will replace the reporting to EWRS as soon as it is officially announced)
- Qualitative indicators: intensity, geographic spread, trend, impact on health care system (to be reported by countries that can not base their reports on solid numbers anymore due to overwhelmed sentinel systems)
Also, all-cause mortality data will become available through EURO MOMO (this will soon be launched for participating countries).
See the latest Weekly Influenza Surveillance Overview (WISO)