Outside of Europe WHO reported on May 7th (reports to May 2^nd) that the most active areas of transmission of 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) are in parts of West Africa, the Caribbean (notably Cuba) and South East Asia. Pandemic influenza activity remains low in much of the temperate zone of both the Northern and Southern hemisphere. Seasonal influenza type B viruses have been increasingly detected over a larger area and are now the predominant circulating influenza viruses across East Asia, Central Africa and Northern and Eastern Europe.

The temperate countries of the Southern Hemisphere (notably Australia, New Zealand and Chile) are of particular interest to Europe. As of late April influenza like illness (ILI) activity is low to date and no different from previous years (normally ILI does not start to rise until May or June).  The special interest is because these countries will be the first in the world to experience the second winter of transmission with the pandemic virus and so will give an indication of what Europe can expect in its winter of 2010/2011.