On February 7th 2017, several RESCEU Partners took part in a European consultation meeting on RSV surveillance led by European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in Stockholm. The meeting was attended by epidemiologists, paediatricians, virologists and other RSV experts from many European countries. It aimed to explore the possibilities of a harmonized RSV surveillance by the European member states and consider available resources at national level and within the ECDC in developing such a system. A working paper outlining several options for setting up RSV surveillance in EU/EEA countries was discussed. A SWOT (Strength, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis was performed by the participants to discuss several options for RSV surveillance. A revised paper will be presented to the ECDC Advisory Forum in May 2017 (which will also decide whether RSV should be designated as an official health priority in Europe). One of the conclusions of the analysis was that a minimum dataset should be identified that can be provided by most of the countries. To start this process, it was suggested by a representative from the Statens Serum Institut (SSI), Denmark, to conduct an inventory across European countries on the current surveillance activities and surveillance sources on RSV. This initiative was agreed upon and suggested planned as a joint effort by RESCEU Partners from SSI, Denmark and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Netherlands, together with ECDC. RESCEU partners from the University of Edinburgh, UK also assisted WHO Geneva in designing a global RSV surveillance pilot to be conducted in 14 countries globally (2 of which are in Europe). Plans for this were also briefly presented at this meeting.
Overall this was a very successful meeting for RESCEU as Work Package 2 activities on RSV surveillance were significantly advanced, relationships with ECDC were strengthened and links with other surveillance systems (e.g. in USA and Canada) were established.