2009 WHO European regional influenza surveillance meeting

Background

WHO/Europe collects and presents clinical, epidemiological and virological data on influenza submitted by the 53 Member States in the WHO European Region and published as a weekly bulletin. Each year, WHO/Europe organizes a meeting for influenza surveillance focal points to exchange information and discuss new developments. In 2009 the annual meeting took place in St Petersburg, Russian Federation, on 9-11 September.

Outcomes of the meeting

The outcomes of the meeting were as follows:

• Each participant left the meeting with a good understanding of the WHO/Europe Surveillance Guidelines for Human Influenza, as well as training in their application to seasonal and pandemic influenza monitoring.
• Each country identified ways to improve their national influenza surveillance based on the WHO/Europe and global guidelines.
• Each participant is now able to use the EuroFlu IT surveillance platform and, where appropriate, has uploaded his or her national historical surveillance data.
• A meeting report will be published, including the results of an evaluation questionnaire to be filled in by all participants at the end of the meeting.