ECDC is collecting, sharing and disseminating information on national vaccination programmes and provides guidance for improving the overall performance of the vaccination systems in EU/EEA Member States. The latest data on vaccination coverage by country in the EU/EEA of different risk- and target groups are available in the reports listed on this page.
In May 2012 a WHO SAGE (Strategic Advisory Group of Experts) statement on immunisation delivered its opinion on seasonal influenza immunisation through the Weekly Epidemiological Record.(
In September 2010 Sweden and Finland noted a number of children had developed narcolepsy seemingly in association with having received the pandemic vaccine used almost exclusively in those countries (Pandemrix)
Investigation of an increase in the incidence of narcolepsy in children and adolescents in 2009 and 2010 - Final Report of National Narcolepsy Study Steering Committee, Department of Health, Ireland
A rapid communication published on April 12th 2012 describes the early results of the annual multicentre case-control study undertaken by the ECDC sponsored I-MOVE consortium whose work is coordinated by an Epiconcept team
Preliminary results of European vaccine effectiveness study show decreased protective effect of the seasonal influenza vaccine in 2011/2012 season. ECDC Director Marc Sprenger calls for action.
A pair of linked papers from Finland concerning the above topic, one epidemiological and the second combining both clinical and epidemiological were published on March 28th in the open access journal, PLoS One.(1,2).
Influenza viruses pose a particular challenge for those designing vaccines for humans. Much of the protective immunity that humans have against these viruses following natural infection or vaccination is due to immunological recognition of the haemagglutinin (HA) surface glycoprotein.