Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic negatively impacted the 2019/20 WHO European Region influenza surveillance. Compared with previous 4-year averages, antigenic and genetic characterisations decreased by 17% (3,140 vs 2,601) and 24% (4,474 vs 3,403). Of sub-typed influenza A viruses, 56% (26,477/47,357) were A(H1)pdm09, 44% (20,880/47,357) A(H3). Of characterised B viruses, 98% (4,585/4,679) were B/Victoria. Considerable numbers of viruses antigenically differed from northern hemisphere vaccine components. In 2020/21, maintaining influenza virological surveillance, while supporting SARS-CoV-2 surveillance is crucial.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Article number | 2001822 |
| Journal | Eurosurveillance |
| Volume | 25 |
| Issue number | 46 |
| DOIs | |
| Publication status | Published - Nov 2020 |
Bibliographical note
Funding Information:We express our gratitude to the TESSy data management team, especially Marius Valentin Valcu, for technical support. We would like to thank Andrew Amato for reviewing the manuscript, as well as the reviewers of the 'Summary of influenza virus antigenic and genetic characterizations in Europe: data reported by National Influenza Centres to The European Surveillance System for weeks 40/2019 to week 20/2020', for their valuable comments. We acknowledge all the members of the European region influenza surveillance network for their work on influenza surveillance data collection. We gratefully acknowledge the authors of the HA sequences retrieved from GISAID and used in this study. We would also like to acknowledge the physicians and nurses of sentinel network sites and intensive care units for their contribution in providing respiratory specimens. We would also like to thank the WHO CC for reference and research on influenza, Crick Worldwide Influenza Centre, The Francis Crick Institute, London, United Kingdom for their continuous tireless support to the WHO European Region influenza network. United Kingdom (England): We would like to acknowledge all staff of the Respiratory Virus Unit, National Infection Service, Public Health England
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). All rights reserved.
Copyright:
Copyright 2020 Elsevier B.V., All rights reserved.
