Overview of the WHO Global Influenza Programme

The major focus of the WHO Influenza Programme has been on the annual recommendations of the influenza vaccine formulation and related activities committees. The Programme's main structural components are National Influenza Centres (NIC) which sample patients with influenza-like-illness and WHO Collaborating Centres (WHO CC) which receive representative isolates from NICs for antigenic and genetic analyses. In addition, WHO CCs, jointly with key national reference laboratories, conduct annual studies on whether the current vaccines induce satisfactory antibody levels to new epidemic strains. They also make available high yielding reassortant viruses for vaccine production as well as vaccine potency testing reagents. The WHO Global Influenza Programme jointly with its partners published Pandemic Preparedness Guidelines and Recommendations on the Use of Inactivated Influenza Vaccine. It has recently initiated the development of a Global Agenda on Influenza (www.who.int/influenza) and expanded its mission from surveillance to pandemic preparedness, assessment of impact of influenza and increasing influenza vaccine usage.