European External Influenza Virus Quality Assessment Programme – 2020 data

Influenza epidemics occur every winter with high impact on disease burden, hospitalisations and excess mortality in countries in the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region. To understand the characteristics of circulating influenza viruses during seasonal epidemics, virological influenza surveillance is performed, and detected viruses are further characterised at national influenza centres (NICs) that are part of the wider network, the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS). External quality assessment (EQA) is an important instrument in assessing the quality of the generated data that are reported nationally and internationally through The European Surveillance System (TESSy) and presented in Flu News Europe, the joint European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC)-WHO Regional Office for Europe weekly influenza update (http://flunewseurope.org/).