Main developments in past 72 hours
- ECDC updated its Pandemic Risk Assessment November 6th including recommended European planning assumptions for hospital care;
- WHO note concerning the detection of pandemic and other influenzas in animals;
- Deaths reported by EU/EEA countries as specifically due to the pandemic virus rose steeply in Week 45;
- Reports from European Influenza Surveillance Network show that pandemic activity is increasing in fifteen out of twenty one counties reporting a trend;
- Total of 401 fatal cases in Europe and EFTA countries and 6 082 in the rest of the world
This report is based on official information provided by the national public health websites or through other official communication channels. An update on the number of confirmed fatal cases is presented in Table 2 - as of 08 November 2009 -16:00 hours CEST, for the world, and 09 November 2009 - 09:00 hours CEST, for Europe.
ECDC Pandemic Risk Assessment updated
ECDC on Friday updated its Pandemic Risk Assessment which is the main repository of its scientific analyses of the epidemiology and experience of the pandemic in Europe and elsewhere. The update is informed by the first experiences from this autumn in Europe and North America as well as further analyses from the Southern Hemisphere's temperate countries during their winter season. It includes details of the clinical experience of people who are becoming severely ill; the first adjusted planning assumptions for European countries not significantly affected by the earlier wave; the basic parameters of the pandemic, drawing on work undertaken with WHO and ECDC Advisory Forum; European confirmation that many older people possess prior immunity, but that those who are not immune are more at risk of severe disease than any other age group; more information on the extent of asymptomatic and very mild cases and estimates of the relative risk for those who, if they have certain risk factors, become severely ill with this infection (pregnant women, people with asthma and other chronic respiratory diseases and massively obese people). The Risk Assessment is available at http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/healthtopics/Pages/Influenza_A(H1N1)_Risk_Assessment.aspx
