A recent evaluation of national pandemic response polices found that the regional and local information infrastructures for collecting and processing pandemic data are not aligned with response program processes and structures [1].
For the years surrounding the 1957 and 1968 pandemics, data were obtained from the Registry of Births and Deaths, Singapore.
Information on the incidence and clinical characteristics of severe paediatric influenza resulting in intensive care treatment and/or fatal outcome is still limited in Germany, and post-pandemic data is thus far available only for the season 2010/11 [ 18– 20].
Before the pandemic, sample data were entered into the Laboratory Information System LISS) and bar-coded in the Central Processing & Receiving section; the accessioned respiratory samples were then transported to the Virology Laboratory, located 3 floors away.
In response to pandemic (H1N1) 2009, data were collected on work status and industry of employment of 3,365 adults hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed influenza during the 2009 10 influenza season in the United States.
Prior to the emergence of H5N1 related pandemic threat, influenza data were scarce in Cambodia as laboratory capacities were also limited.
Although this is a limitation of our analysis because diagnostic test sensitivity can vary on the basis of type or subtype of influenza viruses (7, 21, 23 ), differences in sensitivity based on type or subtype would have been difficult to assess, especially before the 2009 pandemic, when those data were not routinely available because of lack of RT-PCR or viral culture data in our network.
Since these patients were hospitalized in order to contain the pandemic, their data was not included in this study.
Furthermore synthetic, seasonal, and pandemic outbreak data are analysed in order to show and discuss the performance of the method.
We can put an upper boundary only on the effectiveness of the border screening adopted early in the pandemic because data are available only on cases detected (either at the border or later through case-tracing), rather than missed cases.
