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Bi-weekly influenza surveillance overview, 24 September 2010 (ECDC, extracts, edited)
Bi-weekly influenza surveillance overview, 24 September 2010 (ECDC, extracts, edited)
[Source: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), full PDF Document (LINK). Extracts, edited.]
SURVEILLANCE REPORT
Bi-weekly influenza surveillance overview, 24 September 2010
Main surveillance developments in Weeks 36-37/2010 (06 Sep 2010 ? 19 Sep 2010)
This first page contains the main developments in last two weeks and can be printed separately or together with the more detailed information following.
Sentinel surveillance (ILI/ARI)
Weekly analysis?epidemiology
During weeks 36?37/2010, 17 of 29 (59%) countries reported the intensity indicator. Since week 9/2010, all reporting countries have experienced low intensity (Map 1, Table1).
Geographic spread indicator was reported by 17 countries and the UK (England, Scotland and Wales).
Cyprus and the UK (Scotland and Wales) reported sporadic ILI/ARI activity.
The other 16 countries reported no activity (Map 2, Table 1). For the trend indicator, three countries (Bulgaria, Estonia and Hungary) observed an increasing trend from week 34 onwards, whilst all other countries reported a stable trend (Table 1).
(...)
Description of the system
This surveillance is based on nationally organized sentinel networks of physicians, mostly general practitioners (GPs), covering at least 1?5% of the population in their countries. All EU/EEA Member States (except Liechtenstein) are participating. Depending on their country?s choice, each sentinel physician reports the weekly number of patients seen with influenza-like illness (ILI), acute respiratory infection (ARI) or both to a national focal point. From the national level, both numerator and denominator data are then reported to the European Surveillance System (TESSy) database. Additional semi-quantitative indicators of intensity, geographic spread and trend of influenza activity at the national level are also reported.
Virological surveillance
Weekly analysis ? virology
During weeks 36 and 37/2010, 19 countries and the UK (England, Northern Ireland and Scotland) reported virological data. Table 2 shows the distribution of both sentinel and non-sentinel specimens by type and subtype.
Sentinel physicians collected 166 specimens, of which one was positive for the 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus and the other for influenza B virus. Four non-sentinel source specimens (e.g., specimens collected for diagnostic purposes in hospital settings) tested positive for influenza A, two for influenza A(H3) and for the other two samples subtyping was not performed (Table 2).
Cumulative data since week 40/2009 show that subtyping was performed on 16 232 type A influenza viruses detected in samples from sentinel practices. Of these, 99.6% (16 174) were identified as the 2009 pandemic A(H1N1) virus (Table 2). The proportion of positive sentinel samples has remained at low levels in Europe since week 07/2010.
An update from CNRL on influenza virus characterisation can be found here: Surveillance report (August 2010).
In summary, all 2009 pandemic A(H1N1) viruses received from EU countries have been antigenically similar and genetically closely related to the vaccine virus A/California/7/2009. In addition, most of the circulating influenza B viruses have been closely related to the 2009-2010 vaccine strain B/Brisbane/60/2008 (Victoria lineage; Table 3).
For details on the current virus strains recommended by WHO for vaccine preparation for 2010-2011 season click here.
(...)
Table 3: Results of antigenic characterisations of sentinel and non-sentinel influenza virus isolates, weeks 40/2009?37/2010
[Strain name - Number of strains]
Country comments
Finland, week 37: Five of the ten sentinel samples were adenovirus positive.
Description of the system
According to the nationally defined sampling strategy, sentinel physicians take nasal or pharyngeal swabs from patients with influenza-like illness (ILI), acute respiratory infection (ARI) or both and send the specimens to influenza-specific reference laboratories for virus detection, (sub-)typing, antigenic or genetic characterisation and antiviral susceptibility testing.
For details on the current virus strains recommended by WHO for vaccine preparation click here.
Hospital surveillance ? severe acute respiratory infection (SARI)
Weekly analysis?SARI
During weeks 36 and 37/2010, no SARI cases were reported to TESSy.
Since the beginning of SARI surveillance, eleven countries reported 11 461 cases and 576 related fatalities (Table 4). In cases where influenza virus was detected, 99.7% were 2009 pandemic A(H1N1) viruses (Table 5).
Table 4: Cumulative number of SARI cases, weeks 40/2009 - week 37/2010
[Country - Number of cases - Incidence of SARI cases per 100,000 population - Number of fatal cases reported - Incidence of fatal cases per 100,000 population - Estimated population covered]
Table 5: Number of SARI cases by influenza type and subtype, week 37/2010
[Virus type/subtype - Cumulative number of cases since the start of the season]
The report text was written by an editorial team at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC): Flaviu Plata, Phillip Zucs, Bruno Ciancio, Rene Snacken and Eeva Broberg. The bulletin text was reviewed by the Community Network of Reference Laboratories for Human Influenza in Europe (CNRL) coordination team: Adam Meijer, Rod Daniels, John McCauley and Maria Zambon. On behalf of the EISN members the bulletin text was reviewed by Joan O?Donnell (Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Ireland) and Katarina Prosenc (National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia).
Maps and commentary used in this Weekly Influenza Surveillance Overview (WISO) do not imply any opinions whatsoever of ECDC or its partners on the legal status of the countries and territories shown or concerning their borders.
All data published in the WISO are up-to-date on the day of publication. Past this date, however, published data should not be used for longitudinal comparisons as countries tend to retrospectively update their numbers in the database.
? European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Stockholm, 2010
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[Source: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), full PDF Document (LINK). Extracts, edited.]
SURVEILLANCE REPORT
Bi-weekly influenza surveillance overview, 24 September 2010
Main surveillance developments in Weeks 36-37/2010 (06 Sep 2010 ? 19 Sep 2010)
This first page contains the main developments in last two weeks and can be printed separately or together with the more detailed information following.
- Epidemiological indicators show no or sporadic influenza activity in the 17 reporting EU countries. A few influenza A and B viruses were detected in sentinel and non-sentinel specimens during weeks 36 and 37/2010. No SARI cases were reported during this period.
- Sentinel surveillance of influenza-like illness (ILI)/acute respiratory infection (ARI):
- All 17 reporting countries experienced low influenza activity and no or sporadic geographic activity. In three countries (Bulgaria, Estonia and Hungary) increasing trends were observed. (...)
- Virological surveillance:
- Sentinel physicians collected 166 respiratory specimens, two (1.2%) of which were positive for influenza virus; one for the 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus and one for influenza B virus. (...)
- Hospital surveillance of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI):
- During weeks 36?37/2010, no SARI cases were reported. (...)
Sentinel surveillance (ILI/ARI)
Weekly analysis?epidemiology
During weeks 36?37/2010, 17 of 29 (59%) countries reported the intensity indicator. Since week 9/2010, all reporting countries have experienced low intensity (Map 1, Table1).
Geographic spread indicator was reported by 17 countries and the UK (England, Scotland and Wales).
Cyprus and the UK (Scotland and Wales) reported sporadic ILI/ARI activity.
The other 16 countries reported no activity (Map 2, Table 1). For the trend indicator, three countries (Bulgaria, Estonia and Hungary) observed an increasing trend from week 34 onwards, whilst all other countries reported a stable trend (Table 1).
(...)
Description of the system
This surveillance is based on nationally organized sentinel networks of physicians, mostly general practitioners (GPs), covering at least 1?5% of the population in their countries. All EU/EEA Member States (except Liechtenstein) are participating. Depending on their country?s choice, each sentinel physician reports the weekly number of patients seen with influenza-like illness (ILI), acute respiratory infection (ARI) or both to a national focal point. From the national level, both numerator and denominator data are then reported to the European Surveillance System (TESSy) database. Additional semi-quantitative indicators of intensity, geographic spread and trend of influenza activity at the national level are also reported.
Virological surveillance
Weekly analysis ? virology
During weeks 36 and 37/2010, 19 countries and the UK (England, Northern Ireland and Scotland) reported virological data. Table 2 shows the distribution of both sentinel and non-sentinel specimens by type and subtype.
Sentinel physicians collected 166 specimens, of which one was positive for the 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus and the other for influenza B virus. Four non-sentinel source specimens (e.g., specimens collected for diagnostic purposes in hospital settings) tested positive for influenza A, two for influenza A(H3) and for the other two samples subtyping was not performed (Table 2).
Cumulative data since week 40/2009 show that subtyping was performed on 16 232 type A influenza viruses detected in samples from sentinel practices. Of these, 99.6% (16 174) were identified as the 2009 pandemic A(H1N1) virus (Table 2). The proportion of positive sentinel samples has remained at low levels in Europe since week 07/2010.
An update from CNRL on influenza virus characterisation can be found here: Surveillance report (August 2010).
In summary, all 2009 pandemic A(H1N1) viruses received from EU countries have been antigenically similar and genetically closely related to the vaccine virus A/California/7/2009. In addition, most of the circulating influenza B viruses have been closely related to the 2009-2010 vaccine strain B/Brisbane/60/2008 (Victoria lineage; Table 3).
For details on the current virus strains recommended by WHO for vaccine preparation for 2010-2011 season click here.
(...)
Table 3: Results of antigenic characterisations of sentinel and non-sentinel influenza virus isolates, weeks 40/2009?37/2010
[Strain name - Number of strains]
- A(H1)v California/7/2009-like - 3353
- A(H3) A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2)-like - 9
- A(H3) A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)-like - 35
- B/Brisbane/60/2008-like (B/Victoria/2/87 lineage) - 19
- B/Florida/4/2006-like (B/Yamagata/16/88 lineage) - 5
Country comments
Finland, week 37: Five of the ten sentinel samples were adenovirus positive.
Description of the system
According to the nationally defined sampling strategy, sentinel physicians take nasal or pharyngeal swabs from patients with influenza-like illness (ILI), acute respiratory infection (ARI) or both and send the specimens to influenza-specific reference laboratories for virus detection, (sub-)typing, antigenic or genetic characterisation and antiviral susceptibility testing.
For details on the current virus strains recommended by WHO for vaccine preparation click here.
Hospital surveillance ? severe acute respiratory infection (SARI)
Weekly analysis?SARI
During weeks 36 and 37/2010, no SARI cases were reported to TESSy.
Since the beginning of SARI surveillance, eleven countries reported 11 461 cases and 576 related fatalities (Table 4). In cases where influenza virus was detected, 99.7% were 2009 pandemic A(H1N1) viruses (Table 5).
Table 4: Cumulative number of SARI cases, weeks 40/2009 - week 37/2010
[Country - Number of cases - Incidence of SARI cases per 100,000 population - Number of fatal cases reported - Incidence of fatal cases per 100,000 population - Estimated population covered]
- Austria - 2917 - ... - 41 - ... - ...
- Belgium - 1749 - 16.39 - ... - ... - 10,668,666
- Cyprus - 26 - ... - 9 - ... - ...
- Finland - 1422 - 26.7 - 56 - 1.05 - 5,326,314
- France - 1357 - ... - 302 - ... - ...
- United Kingdom - 1639 - 4.15 - 65 - 0.16 - 39,503,332
- Ireland - 903 - ... - 17 - ... - ...
- Malta - 216 - 52.22 - 1 - 0.24 - 413,609
- Netherlands - 652 - 3.95 - 29 - 0.18 - 16,521,505
- Romania - 215 - 16.95 - 16 - 1.26 - 1,268,418
- Slovakia - 365 - ... - 40 - ... - ...
- Total - 11,461 - ... - 576 - ... - 73,701,844
Table 5: Number of SARI cases by influenza type and subtype, week 37/2010
[Virus type/subtype - Cumulative number of cases since the start of the season]
- Influenza A - 9184
- A (pandemic H1N1) - 9152
- A(subtyping not performed) - 25
- A(H3) - ...
- A(H1) - 7
- A(H5) - ...
- Influenza B - ...
- Unknown - 2277
- Total - 11461
The report text was written by an editorial team at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC): Flaviu Plata, Phillip Zucs, Bruno Ciancio, Rene Snacken and Eeva Broberg. The bulletin text was reviewed by the Community Network of Reference Laboratories for Human Influenza in Europe (CNRL) coordination team: Adam Meijer, Rod Daniels, John McCauley and Maria Zambon. On behalf of the EISN members the bulletin text was reviewed by Joan O?Donnell (Health Protection Surveillance Centre, Ireland) and Katarina Prosenc (National Institute of Public Health, Slovenia).
Maps and commentary used in this Weekly Influenza Surveillance Overview (WISO) do not imply any opinions whatsoever of ECDC or its partners on the legal status of the countries and territories shown or concerning their borders.
All data published in the WISO are up-to-date on the day of publication. Past this date, however, published data should not be used for longitudinal comparisons as countries tend to retrospectively update their numbers in the database.
? European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Stockholm, 2010
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