Influenza vaccination reduces the number of influenza virus infections but not the overall number of illness.

Last winter season, the duration and severity of the influenza epidemic was moderate compared to previous years.

The flu epidemic in the winter of 2014 / 2015 lasted 21 weeks and as such was the longest epidemic ever recorded in the Netherlands. Nearly two million people suffered from flu-like symptoms.

COMPARE, a large EU project intends to speed up the detection of, and response to disease outbreaks among humans and animals worldwide, through the use of new genome technology.