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Weekly influenza surveillance overview - 19 November 2010 (ECDC, 11/20/10, extract, edited)
Weekly influenza surveillance overview - 19 November 2010 (ECDC, 11/20/10, extract, edited)
[Source: European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), full PDF document (LINK). Extract, edited.]
SURVEILLANCE REPORT
Weekly influenza surveillance overview - 19 November 2010
Main surveillance developments in week 45/2010 (08 Nov 2010?14 Nov 2010)
This first page contains the main developments of this week and can be printed separately or together with the more detailed information following.
Sentinel surveillance of influenza-like illness (ILI)/acute respiratory infection (ARI):
Bulgaria reported medium activity based on consultations for ARI, the other 23 countries reported low activity of ILI/ARI. Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Lithuania reported increasing trends and other 19 reporting countries observed stable or decreasing trends.
Virological surveillance:
Sentinel physicians collected 369 specimens, 22 (6.0%) of which were positive for influenza virus. Of the 39 influenza viruses detected from sentinel and non-sentinel sources during week 45/2010, 32 were type A and seven were type B.
Hospital surveillance of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI):
Eleven SARI cases were reported during week 45/2010, but no influenza virus was detected in the patients.
Sentinel surveillance (ILI/ARI) - Weekly analysis ? epidemiology
During week 45/2010, 24 of 29 countries reported epidemiological data. All countries except Bulgaria continued to experience low intensity (Map 1, Table 1).
For the geographic spread indicator, the Czech Republic, France, Slovenia and the UK (England, Scotland and Wales) reported sporadic cases, while all other countries reported no activity (Map 2, Table 1).
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Lithuania reported increasing trends; the other 19 reporting countries observed stable or decreasing trends (Map 1 and Table 1). Consultation rates continue to be at national baseline levels in all countries that reported.
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Table 1: Epidemiological and virological overview by country, week 45/2010
[Country - Intensity - Geographic spread - Trend - No. of sentinel swabs - Dominant type - Percentage positive* - ILI per 100.000 - ARI per 100.000]
*Incidence per 100 000 is not calculated for these countries as no population denominator is provided.
Note: Liechtenstein is not reporting to the European Influenza Surveillance Network
Description of the system
This surveillance is based on nationally organised 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. More details on the surveilannce methods and case definitions can be found in the Overview of surveillance of influenza 2009/2010in the EU/EEA.
Virological surveillance - Weekly analysis ? virology
In week 45/2010, 22 countries reported virological data. Sentinel physicians collected 369 specimens, 22 (6.0%) of which were positive for influenza virus (Tables 1 and 2). In addition, 17 non-sentinel source specimens (e.g., specimens collected for diagnostic purpose in hospitals) were reported positive for influenza virus.
Of the 39 influenza viruses detected from sentinel and non-sentinel sources during week 45/2010, 32 (82.1%) were type A and seven (17.9%) were type B. These detections were reported by Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the UK (England Northern Ireland and Scotland).
Twenty four of the 32 influenza A viruses detected in week 45/2010 were subtyped: 20 as A(H1)2009 virus and four as A(H3). Table 2 shows the distribution of both sentinel and non-sentinel specimens by type and subtype. Figures 1?3 show the trends of virological detections since week 40/2010 over time.
Since week 40/2010, 29 viruses from sentinel and non-sentinel samples were characterised antigenically (Table 3), 17 of them were A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virus. Among the characterised influenza B viruses, both Yamagata and Victoria lineages were represented.
More details on circulating viruses can be found in the report prepared by the Community Network of Reference Laboratories coordination team.
In week 45/2010, 13 countries reported 222 detections of respiratory syncytial virus, a number within the range of that reported at the same time in the previous season (Figure 4), but clearly increasing, which suggests the start of intensified circulation of RSV.
Table 2: Weekly and cumulative influenza virus detections by type, subtype and surveillance system, weeks 40/2010?45/2010
[Virus Type/Subtype - Current period: Sentinel - Non-sentinel / Season: Sentinel - Non-sentinel]
Note: A(H1)2009, A(H3) and A(H1) include both N-subtyped and not N-subtyped viruses.
...
Table 3: Results of antigenic characterisations of sentinel and non-sentinel influenza virus isolates, weeks 40/2010?45/2010
[Strain name - Number of strains]
...
For details on the current virus strains recommended by WHO for vaccine preparation click here.
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. More details on the surveilannce methods and case definitions can be found in the Overview of surveillance of influenza 2009/2010in the EU/EEA.
Hospital surveillance ? severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) - Weekly analysis ? SARI
During week 45/2010, 11 SARI cases were reported in Romania. Since week 40/2010 a total of 18 SARI cases have been reported. Influenza virus was not detected in any of these cases and none of the individuals had been vaccinated against influenza (Tables 4, 5 and 6).
Table 4: Number of SARI cases by age and gender, week 45/2010
[Age groups - Male - Female]
Table 5: Number of SARI cases by influenza type and subtype, week 45/2010
[Virus type/subtype - Number of cases during current week - Cumulative number of cases since the start of the season]
Note: A(H1) 2009, A(H3) and A(H1) include both N-subtyped and not N-subtyped viruses.
Table 6: Number of SARI cases by vaccination status, week 45/2010
[Vaccination Status - Number Of Cases - Percentage of cases]
Description of the system
A number of Member States carry out hospital-based surveillance of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) exhaustively or at selected sentinel sites. SARI surveillance serves to monitor the trends in the severity of influenza and potential risk factors for severe disease to help guide preventive measures and health care resource allocation. More details on the surveilannce methods and case definitions can be found in the Overview of surveillance of influenza 2009/2010 in the EU/EEA.
The report text was written by an editorial team at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC): Eeva Broberg, Flaviu Plata, Phillip Zucs and Ren? Snacken. 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 Bianca Snijders (RIVM Bilthoven, the Netherlands) and Thedi Ziegler (National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland)
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). Extract, edited.]
SURVEILLANCE REPORT
Weekly influenza surveillance overview - 19 November 2010
Main surveillance developments in week 45/2010 (08 Nov 2010?14 Nov 2010)
This first page contains the main developments of this week and can be printed separately or together with the more detailed information following.
- Epidemiological indicators show no or only sporadic influenza activity in 23 of the 24 EU reporting countries. Bulgaria reported medium intensity of acute respiratory infection.
- During week 45, 22 (6.0%) of 369 sentinel specimens tested positive for influenza virus. Thirty-two of 39 influenza viruses detected in sentinel and non-sentinel specimens were type A, and seven were type B. Of the 24 influenza A viruses subtyped, 20 were A(H1)2009 and four were A(H3).
- Since week 40/2010, influenza A(H3), A(H1)2009 and influenza B viruses of the Yamagata and the Victoria lineages have been detected.
- Eleven SARI cases, not related to influenza, were reported during week 45/2010.
- Rare detections of influenza viruses along with sporadic detections of respiratory syncytial viruses in a number of European countries suggest that the low influenza-like illness and acute respiratory infection activity currently observed is likely due to respiratory pathogens other than influenza.
Sentinel surveillance of influenza-like illness (ILI)/acute respiratory infection (ARI):
Bulgaria reported medium activity based on consultations for ARI, the other 23 countries reported low activity of ILI/ARI. Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Lithuania reported increasing trends and other 19 reporting countries observed stable or decreasing trends.
Virological surveillance:
Sentinel physicians collected 369 specimens, 22 (6.0%) of which were positive for influenza virus. Of the 39 influenza viruses detected from sentinel and non-sentinel sources during week 45/2010, 32 were type A and seven were type B.
Hospital surveillance of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI):
Eleven SARI cases were reported during week 45/2010, but no influenza virus was detected in the patients.
Sentinel surveillance (ILI/ARI) - Weekly analysis ? epidemiology
During week 45/2010, 24 of 29 countries reported epidemiological data. All countries except Bulgaria continued to experience low intensity (Map 1, Table 1).
For the geographic spread indicator, the Czech Republic, France, Slovenia and the UK (England, Scotland and Wales) reported sporadic cases, while all other countries reported no activity (Map 2, Table 1).
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary and Lithuania reported increasing trends; the other 19 reporting countries observed stable or decreasing trends (Map 1 and Table 1). Consultation rates continue to be at national baseline levels in all countries that reported.
...
Table 1: Epidemiological and virological overview by country, week 45/2010
[Country - Intensity - Geographic spread - Trend - No. of sentinel swabs - Dominant type - Percentage positive* - ILI per 100.000 - ARI per 100.000]
- Austria - Low - No activity - Unknown (no information available) - 4 - None - 0.0 - ... - 24.1
- Belgium - Low - No activity - Stable - 8 - None - 0.0 - 16.2 - 901.7
- Bulgaria - Medium - No activity - Increasing - 1 - None - 0.0 - ... - 913.5
- Cyprus - ... - ... - ... - ... - ... - 0.0 - ... - ...
- Czech Republic - Low - Sporadic - Increasing - 12 - AH1 - 41.7 - 20.8 - 825.6
- Denmark - Low - No activity - Stable - 10 - None - 0.0 - 53.5 - 0.0
- Estonia - Low - No activity - Stable - 7 - None - 0.0 - 4.8 - 242.0
- Finland - Low - No activity - Stable - 16 - None - 0.0 - ... - ...
- France - Low - Sporadic - Stable - 15 - None - 0.0 - ... - 1094.3
- Germany - Low - No activity - Stable - 22 - None - 0.0 - ... - 900.9
- Greece - Low - No activity - Stable - ... - ... - 0.0 - 51.3 - ...
- Hungary - Low - No activity - Increasing - ... - ... - 0.0 - 71.7 - ...
- Iceland - ... - ... - ... - ... - ... - 0.0 - ... - ...
- Ireland - Low - No activity - Stable - 7 - None - 0.0 - 8.7 - ...
- Italy - ... - ... - ... - ... - ... - 0.0 - ... - ...
- Latvia - ... - ... - ... - 0 - None - 0.0 - ... - ...
- Lithuania - Low - No activity - Increasing - ... - ... - 0.0 - 0.4 - 394.1
- Luxembourg - Low - No activity - Stable - 1 - None - 0.0 - ...* - ...*
- Malta - ... - ... - ... - ... - ... - 0.0 - ... - ...
- Netherlands - Low - No activity - Stable - 12 - None - 0.0 - 23.9 - ...
- Norway - Low - No activity - Stable - 0 - None - 0.0 - 31.5 - ...
- Poland - Low - No activity - Decreasing - 7 - None - 0.0 - 27.6 - ...
- Portugal - Low - No activity - Stable - 0 - None - 0.0 - 6.8 - ...
- Romania - Low - No activity - Stable - 17 - None - 5.9 - 9.9 - 732.7
- Slovakia - Low - No activity - Stable - 4 - None - 0.0 - 155.9 - 1418.4
- Slovenia - Low - Sporadic - Stable - 9 - None - 11.1 - 1.3 - 950.2
- Spain - Low - No activity - Stable - 79 - None - 8.9 - 18.7 - ...
- Sweden - Low - No activity - Stable - 15 - None - 0.0 - 1.7 - ...
- UK - England - Low - Sporadic - Stable - 108 - None - 7.4 - 7.6 - 382.3
- UK - Northern Ireland - Low - No activity - Stable - 10 - None - 0.0 - 20.7 - 350.6
- UK - Scotland - Low - Sporadic - Stable - 5 - None - 0.0 - 2.6 - 264.0
- UK - Wales - Low - Sporadic - Stable - ... - ... - 0.0 - 9.2 - ...
- Europe - ... - ... - ... - 369 - ... - ... - 6.0
*Incidence per 100 000 is not calculated for these countries as no population denominator is provided.
Note: Liechtenstein is not reporting to the European Influenza Surveillance Network
Description of the system
This surveillance is based on nationally organised 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. More details on the surveilannce methods and case definitions can be found in the Overview of surveillance of influenza 2009/2010in the EU/EEA.
Virological surveillance - Weekly analysis ? virology
In week 45/2010, 22 countries reported virological data. Sentinel physicians collected 369 specimens, 22 (6.0%) of which were positive for influenza virus (Tables 1 and 2). In addition, 17 non-sentinel source specimens (e.g., specimens collected for diagnostic purpose in hospitals) were reported positive for influenza virus.
Of the 39 influenza viruses detected from sentinel and non-sentinel sources during week 45/2010, 32 (82.1%) were type A and seven (17.9%) were type B. These detections were reported by Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain and the UK (England Northern Ireland and Scotland).
Twenty four of the 32 influenza A viruses detected in week 45/2010 were subtyped: 20 as A(H1)2009 virus and four as A(H3). Table 2 shows the distribution of both sentinel and non-sentinel specimens by type and subtype. Figures 1?3 show the trends of virological detections since week 40/2010 over time.
Since week 40/2010, 29 viruses from sentinel and non-sentinel samples were characterised antigenically (Table 3), 17 of them were A/California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like virus. Among the characterised influenza B viruses, both Yamagata and Victoria lineages were represented.
More details on circulating viruses can be found in the report prepared by the Community Network of Reference Laboratories coordination team.
In week 45/2010, 13 countries reported 222 detections of respiratory syncytial virus, a number within the range of that reported at the same time in the previous season (Figure 4), but clearly increasing, which suggests the start of intensified circulation of RSV.
Table 2: Weekly and cumulative influenza virus detections by type, subtype and surveillance system, weeks 40/2010?45/2010
[Virus Type/Subtype - Current period: Sentinel - Non-sentinel / Season: Sentinel - Non-sentinel]
- Influenza A - 18 - 14 / 49 - 68
- A (H1)2009 - 13 - 7 / 34 - 24
- A (subtyping not perfomed) - 1- 7 / 4 - 38
- A (H3) - 4 - 0 / 11 - 6
- A (H1) - 0 - 0 / 0 - 0
- Influenza B - 4 - 3 / 22 - 23
- Total influenza - 22 - 17 / 71 - 91
Note: A(H1)2009, A(H3) and A(H1) include both N-subtyped and not N-subtyped viruses.
...
Table 3: Results of antigenic characterisations of sentinel and non-sentinel influenza virus isolates, weeks 40/2010?45/2010
[Strain name - Number of strains]
- A/ California/7/2009 (H1N1)-like - 17
- A/Brisbane/10/2007 (H3N2)-like - 0
- A/Perth/16/2009 (H3N2)-like - 4
- B/Brisbane/60/2008-like (B/Victoria/2/87 lineage) - 7
- B/Florida/4/2006-like (B/Yamagata/16/88 lineage) - 1
...
For details on the current virus strains recommended by WHO for vaccine preparation click here.
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. More details on the surveilannce methods and case definitions can be found in the Overview of surveillance of influenza 2009/2010in the EU/EEA.
Hospital surveillance ? severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) - Weekly analysis ? SARI
During week 45/2010, 11 SARI cases were reported in Romania. Since week 40/2010 a total of 18 SARI cases have been reported. Influenza virus was not detected in any of these cases and none of the individuals had been vaccinated against influenza (Tables 4, 5 and 6).
Table 4: Number of SARI cases by age and gender, week 45/2010
[Age groups - Male - Female]
- Under 2 - 2 - 1
- 2-17 - 1 - 1
- 18-44 - 3 - 3
- Total - 6 - 5
Table 5: Number of SARI cases by influenza type and subtype, week 45/2010
[Virus type/subtype - Number of cases during current week - Cumulative number of cases since the start of the season]
- Influenza A
- A (H1) 2009 - ...
- A(subtyping not performed) - ...
- A(H3) - ...
- A(H1) - ...
- A(H5) - ...
- Influenza B - ...
- Unknown - 11 - 18
- Total - 11 - 18
Note: A(H1) 2009, A(H3) and A(H1) include both N-subtyped and not N-subtyped viruses.
Table 6: Number of SARI cases by vaccination status, week 45/2010
[Vaccination Status - Number Of Cases - Percentage of cases]
- Not full pandemic vaccination - 0 - 0
- Not vaccinated - 11 - 100
- TOTAL - 11
Description of the system
A number of Member States carry out hospital-based surveillance of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) exhaustively or at selected sentinel sites. SARI surveillance serves to monitor the trends in the severity of influenza and potential risk factors for severe disease to help guide preventive measures and health care resource allocation. More details on the surveilannce methods and case definitions can be found in the Overview of surveillance of influenza 2009/2010 in the EU/EEA.
The report text was written by an editorial team at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC): Eeva Broberg, Flaviu Plata, Phillip Zucs and Ren? Snacken. 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 Bianca Snijders (RIVM Bilthoven, the Netherlands) and Thedi Ziegler (National Institute for Health and Welfare, Finland)
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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