Influenza virus sharing is vital to global influenza pandemic preparedness so as enable facilitating pandemic risk assessment. It also helps develop seasonal influenza candidate vaccine viruses, update diagnostic reagents, test kits, and determine resistance of influenza viruses to antiviral medicines.
In WHO’s South-East Asia Region (SEAR), National Influenza Centers (NICs) have shared viruses for a long period with WHO Collaborating Centers ( WHO CCs) in the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) as part of their routine influenza surveillance activities. However, during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, these activities including influenza virus sharing were disrupted when influenza surveillance systems were diverted to support COVID-19 emergency response.
In the context of disrupted routine influenza surveillance , in an effort to re-prioritize influenza virus sharing in the WHO’s SEAR, participants at two regional influenza meetings (the Regional meeting on implementation of WHO guidance on maintaining influenza surveillance and monitoring SARSCoV-2 through national sentinel surveillance systems during the COVID-19 pandemic in SEAR Member States 13-14 January 2021 and the 14th Bi-Regional Meeting of National Influenza Centers and influenza surveillance in WHO’s Western Pacific and South-East Asia Regions 17-19 August, 2021) shared their experiences of conducting influenza surveillance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Further, they highlighted the utilization and usefulness of the latest WHO Guidance on maintaining surveillance of influenza and monitoring SARS-CoV-2 – adapting Global Influenza surveillance and Response System (GISRS) and sentinel systems during the COVID-19 pandemic. The following recommendations that emerged from the above two regional meetings have provided guidance on next steps for countries in WHO’s SEAR to enhance influenza virus sharing activity :
- Expand influenza surveillance to non-sentinel surveillance sites, with subsequent reporting to Flumart, to increase chances of countries in identifying influenza activity and collecting samples for testing, virus isolation and further sharing with WHO CCs.
- Advocate for integrated influenza and SARS CoV-2 surveillance, including use of multiplex PCR kits for diagnosis of both pathogens.
- Share all available influenza specimens even if it is a single specimen/isolate with a WHO CC in a timely manner, even if there is only one specimen.
- Use two virus transport media—with and without influenza virus inactivation substances—to support collection of samples with viable influenza viruses, local testing, and subsequent shipment to a NIC.