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Volume 28, Supplement—December 2022
SUPPLEMENT ISSUE
Surveillance

Leveraging International Influenza Surveillance Systems and Programs during the COVID-19 Pandemic

Perrine MarcenacComments to Author , Margaret McCarron, William Davis, Ledor S. Igboh, Joshua A. Mott, Kathryn E. Lafond, Weigong Zhou, Marjorie Sorrells, Myrna D. Charles, Philip Gould, Carmen Sofia Arriola, Vic Veguilla, Erica Guthrie, Vivien G. Dugan, Rebecca Kondor, Eric Gogstad, Timothy M. Uyeki, Sonja J. Olsen, Gideon O. Emukule, Siddhartha Saha, Carolyn Greene, Joseph S. Bresee, John Barnes, David E. Wentworth, Alicia M. Fry, Daniel B. Jernigan, and Eduardo Azziz-Baumgartner
Author affiliation: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Main Article

Table 1

Milestones and achievements of 7 countries that worked closely with CDC Influenza Division field staff as they integrated SARS-CoV-2 and influenza surveillance*

Date Milestone or achievement
December 2019
  • The WHO country office in China learns of cases of viral pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, China, and notifies the International Health Regulations focal point in the WHO Western Pacific Regional Office on December 31, 2019 (4).
January 2020
  • Vietnam leverages laboratory capacity built for influenza surveillance to begin testing for SARS-CoV-2; it detects the first case in the country on January 23, 2020.
  • WHO declares that the COVID-19 outbreak is a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020 (4).
  • India selects 13 of its Virus Research and Diagnostic Laboratories already equipped to conduct influenza virus testing to start testing for SARS-CoV-2 in 11 states (13).
  • South Africa’s NIC at NICD begins testing for SARS-CoV-2 as part of the country’s pneumonia and ILI surveillance system.
February 2020
  • Thailand starts testing for SARS-CoV-2 using its influenza platform, including its sentinel surveillance systems.
March 2020
  • WHO makes the assessment that COVID-19 is a pandemic on March 11, 2020 (4).
  • Laos starts testing for SARS-CoV-2 through its SARI/ILI sentinel surveillance systems.
  • Bangladesh starts testing for SARS-CoV-2 through its SARI/ILI sentinel surveillance systems.
  • NICD (South Africa) confirms the country’s first case of COVID-19 on March 5, 2020; testing is expanded from the NIC at NICD to the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa, a network of public and private laboratories, academic institutions, and scientists.
April 2020
  • Kenya starts testing for SARS-CoV-2 through 8 SARI/ILI sentinel surveillance sites in the country.
July 2020
  • Vietnam’s severe viral pneumonia surveillance system detects cases from a nosocomial outbreak that leads to the country’s second COVID-19 wave (14).
December 2020
  • Bangladesh enrolls 1,986 case-patients from its SARI sentinel surveillance sites from March‒December 2020; 285 (14.3%) are infected with SARS-CoV-2, 175 (8.8%) are infected with influenza virus, and 5 (0.3%) are infected with both respiratory viruses (15).
February 2021
  • NICD (South Africa) starts receiving requests for SARS-CoV-2 sequencing from other countries in the region and accepts specimens for sequencing from Eswatini, Lesotho, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, and Sudan.
September 2021
  • Thailand adds a module of questions to its influenza sentinel surveillance forms to assess influenza and COVID-19 vaccination history in 6 sentinel surveillance sites as part of its Influenza and SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Effectiveness Network.
November 2021
  • On November 24, 2021, NICD and the Network for Genomic Surveillance in South Africa report a new variant of SARS-CoV-2 that was detected from specimens collected on November 14, 2021 in South Africa.
  • WHO designates B.1.1.529 as Omicron, the fifth variant of concern, on November 26, 2021 (16).
March 2022   • Thailand’s Influenza and SARS-CoV-2 Vaccine Effectiveness Network reports that of 2,425 specimens collected and tested, 6 (0.2%) are positive for influenza and 573 (23.6%) are positive for SARS-CoV-2; 426 (74.3%) of these SARS-CoV-2–positive specimens are detected during January‒March 2022, a period when >90% of sequenced viruses are the Omicron variant.
  • Kenya reports having enrolled 6,822 SARI/ILI case-patients through its sentinel surveillance system during April 2020‒March 2022, of whom 738 (10.8%) test positive for SARS-CoV-2, 628 (9.2%) test positive for influenza, and 63 (0.9%) are coinfected with influenza and SARS-CoV-2.

*CDC, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; ILI, influenza-like illness; NIC, National Influenza Centre; NICD, National Institute for Communicable Diseases; SARI, severe acute respiratory infection; WHO, World Health Organization.

Main Article

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Page created: May 31, 2022
Page updated: December 11, 2022
Page reviewed: December 11, 2022
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