The WHO global influenza surveillance and response system (GISRS)—A future perspective

Hay, Alan J; McCauley, John W

While GISRS is at the heart of any response to influenza, improvements in vaccines, including the quest for a "universal flu vaccine," and antivirals are essential to improve the world's capability and overall effectiveness in controlling the disease. GISRS' broad vision, under the watchful eye of the WHO GIP, should continue to provide leadership in its interaction with global partners and to implement technological advances to better understand factors influencing the adaptive potential and interspecies transmissibility of the viruses and the host response to human infection. It will be essential to retain the fundamental characteristics and collaborative ethos of GISRS as it evolves under the WHO Global Influenza Programme as the front-line defence against influenza in all its forms, and as a pre-eminent example of an integrated global system for combatting infectious disease.