# 4152
The ECDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control) has released its weekly influenza surveillance report, similar to the the US FluView and Canada’s FluWatch.
Not every European country reports every week to the ECDC, and the depth of surveillance and reporting may vary from one nation to the next, so week to week and cumulative numbers may be a bit hard to interpret.
Still, we get some excellent snapshots of subsets of information, including demographic information (age, gender, vaccination status, underlying conditions) of many of those hospitalized with SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infection).
I’ve just posted some excerpts. This week’s complete report (Pdf file) can be downloaded at this link.
Main surveillance developments in week 49/2009 (30 November — 06 December)
Sentinel surveillance of influenza like-illness (ILI)/ acute respiratory illness (ARI): In week 49/2009, Lithuania reported very high intensity. Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Luxembourg, Norway, Poland, Slovenia and Sweden reported high intensity and the remaining 17 countries reported medium intensity. Twenty-four countries indicated a stable or decreasing trend.
Virological surveillance: Sentinel physicians collected 2620 respiratory specimens, of which 835 (32%) were positive for influenza virus. This represents a decrease of 17% compared to the peak (49%) in week 44. Of the 12 555 viruses detected by sentinel networks since week 40/2009, 12 452 (99%) were A(H1N1)v.
Hospital surveillance of severe acute respiratory infection (SARI): Of the 102 SARI cases reported in week 49/2009, 31 (30%) required ICU admission and 8 (8%) ventilatory support. Twenty SARI cases (20%) had no underlying condition.
SARI: influenza-positive Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (to be reported by countries with exhaustive or sentinel hospital surveillance)
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