Weekly joint bulletin on seasonal influenza - Flu News Europe presented at the annual European Influenza Surveillance Network meeting, Stockholm, June 2015

1. Julien Beauté, ECDC
Caroline Brown, WHO/Europe
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015
Flu News Europe bulletin

2. Principles
• Joint ECDC-WHO/Europe bulletin
− Joint activities (meetings, surveys…)
− TESSy platform
• Guiding principles
− Answers to key questions (when?, what?, where?...)
− Conciseness
− Some degree of interactivity/customisation
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015

3. Challenges
• Analysis
− Perspective (national vs. regional)
− Simplicity
− Data limitations (aggregated data, representativity…)
• Technical
− Preparation (draft, review and approval)
− Illustrations and archiving
• Style
− Branding and visual
− Country names
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015

4. Concept
• A compilation of boxes
− Made of text, charts or tables
− Linked and customisable
• A back office environment
− To draft the text
− To select illustrations
• Outputs
− A interactive online version
− A flexible PDF version to send/download/archive
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015

5. Development
• A collaborative effort
− ECDC-WHO
− ECDC IT unit
• A tight timeline
− Decision made in late 2013
− Draft requirements in March 2014
− Mock-up in June 2014
− First release ready for week40/2014
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015

6. A success to be continued…
• A new bulletin
− Released on time
− Weekly issued during week
40/2014 to 20/2015
− Prepared jointly (roster)
• A continuous improvement
− Map issue
− Constant editing adjustment
− Maintenance and bug fixing
− New features
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015

7. Your input
• Data
− 47 countries reported data this
season
• External review
− Adam Meijer, Rod Daniels,
Isabelle Thomas, Artan Simaku
and Jens Nielsen
• EISN Coordination committee
• Annual meeting participants and
network members
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015

8. Report of aggregate SARI cases
• Creation of a new TESSy record type
− Mimicking the former Euroflu metadata
− Allowing for reporting aggregate data
• Need for new graphs in Flu News
− Stacked histogram with SARI by age group (not pooled)
− % positive for influenza
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015

9. Country profiles
• One tab summarising data at country level
− No interpretation
− Compilation of automated outputs
o Primary care data
o Hospital data
o Virus characteristics
o System description
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015

10. Other developments under consideration
• Primary care data
− Overview of previous seasons
− Naming
− Epidemic thresholds (MEM)
• Hospital data
− Challenge of report and interpretation (working group)
• Virus characteristics
− New illustrations for characterisation data
− New tables for antiviral susceptibility
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015

11. Thanks for your attention!
ECDC Annual Influenza Meeting
Stockholm, 10-12 June 2015