WHO meeting of mid-term review of the RSV surveillance pilot based on the global influenza surveillance and response system: 18–20 December 2017 PAHO, Washington DC, USA

Overview

A standardized and robust global Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV) surveillance system is important to better understand the seasonality of RSV infections and support the programmatic need for future introduction of RSV vaccines. Following a series of consultations with RSV experts organized by the WHO Global Influenza Program (GIP), a draft WHO global strategy for RSV surveillance was developed in June 2016. The WHO Global RSV Surveillance Strategy (World Health Organization 2017) was developed with standards specific to RSV surveillance using the functioning mechanisms and infrastructure of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS) . The GISRS network comprises 153 institutions in 114 countries, of which, National Influenza Centers (NICs) form the backbone. With a strategy identified to build on GISRS as the most cost-effective approach for global RSV surveillance, a two-year Global RSV Surveillance Pilot (2017-18) was rolled out in 2016 in 14 countries representative of the six WHO regions. The Pilot is an integrated epidemiological and laboratory surveillance coordinated by WHO in sentinel sites engaged in ARI, SARI and ILI surveillance. Each Pilot country selected several sentinel sites which would collect and send specimens to the National Influenza Centre (NIC) to test for RSV. In addition, WHO identified three reference laboratories for RSV. After one-year of implementation, a meeting was held in December 2017 to review the progress and early outcomes of the Pilot. This meeting brought together 61 participants from six WHO regions, including the laboratory and surveillance focal points, international RSV experts, MOH officials, global and regional partners and other entities. The objectives of the three-day meeting were to review the progress, early outcomes, review the strategy for any mid-course corrections, discuss challenges, develop plans for estimating incremental costs, and discuss strategies for sustainability.