Southern Hemisphere Influenza and Vaccine Effectiveness Research and Surveillance

Huang, Qiu Sue; Turner, Nikki; Baker, Michael G; Williamson, Deborah A; Wong, Conroy; Webby, Richard; Widdowson, Marc-Alain

We have established active, prospective, population-based surveillance systems for a wide range of respiratory disease presentations and designed a portfolio of influenza studies based on these platforms. The SHIVERS results during the first 2 years (2012-2013) provided scientific evidence to support change to NZ's vaccination policy for young children due to high SARI-associated influenza hospitalizations in these children; contribute to the finalization of the World Health Organization's SARI case definition for global influenza surveillance; and contribute in part to vaccine strain selection with vaccine effectiveness assessment in the prevention of general practice visits and hospitalizations for laboratoryconfirmed influenza. In the next 3 years (2014-2016), this project will continue to help us to understand (1) the burden of influenza infection including symptomatic/asymptomatic infection and mild disease not requiring medical consultation;