ECDC publishes influenza virus characterisation report

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) periodically publishes influenza characterisation reports, giving an overview of circulating influenza viruses. These reports provide details on current vaccine strains, summarise the development of viruses since the last report and closely follow the main developments for the ongoing influenza season.

On 18 January 2021, the ECDC published the third virus characterisation period report for the 2020 to 2021 influenza season. As of week 53 of 2020, 415 influenza detections across the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region had been reported, of which 50% were type A viruses, with A(H3N2) prevailing over A(H1N1)pdm09, and 50% were type B viruses, with four having been ascribed to a lineage, three being B/Victoria and one B/Yamagata. These figures represent a 98% drop in detections compared with the same period in 2019.

Source: ECDC, 18 January 2021