The objectives of this meeting were to describe the epidemiological and virological situation of influenza during the 2008/09 season in Europe and prepare the network members to use TESSy as a new IT infrastructure, with new variables and database structure discussed.

The transfer of the coordination of the influenza surveillance network to ECDC was concluded successfully and the operation of the network continued without any problems. In addition to clinical surveillance at the primary care level, countries are now encouraged to establish systems of surveillance of severe acute respiratory infection.