WHO Regional Office for Europe guidance for sentinel influenza surveillance in humans (2011)

This document provides technical guidance to establish sentinel site surveillance to assess the virologic and epidemiologic characteristics of respiratory disease leading to outpatient consultation or hospitalization that may be caused by influenza (seasonal or pandemic) or another respiratory virus. It was updated in May 2011 to draw on Member State experiences in sentinel surveillance during the two previous influenza seasons and pandemic (H1N1) 2009. Several other areas of the document were strengthened based on a survey of Member States' perspectives on the WHO Regional Office for Europe guidance for influenza surveillance in humans (August 2009 document) that was undertaken at the WHO/Europe annual surveillance meeting held in Brasov, Romania from 21 to 23 September 2010.

Update - 2018

The WHO Global Epidemiological Surveillance Standards for Influenza was updated in 2013, and the WHO Regional Office for Europe has adopted the revised case definitions for influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (SARI).

ILI case definition

An acute respiratory infection with:

• measured fever of ≥ 38 C°
• and cough;
• with onset within the last 10 days.

SARI case definition

An acute respiratory infection with:

• history of fever or measured fever of ≥ 38 C°;
• and cough;
• with onset within the last 10 days;
• and requires hospitalization.