Canada's Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: Surveillance Strategy

Abstract

The Canadian Pandemic Influenza Preparedness: Planning Guidance for the Health Sector (CPIP) is a guidance document that outlines key health sector preparedness activities designed to ensure Canada is ready to respond to the next influenza pandemic. This article outlines Canada’s pandemic influenza surveillance strategy as described in the CPIP Surveillance Annex. The strategy builds on the surveillance activities used for seasonal influenza and incorporates lessons learned from the 2009 H1N1 pandemic, including improved information sharing, improved electronic links among Federal/Provinical/Territorial (FPT) partners and improved surveillance for Indigenous communities. Key elements of the surveillance strategy include early detection and investigation of a novel influenza virus through the reporting of cases or clusters of severe acute respiratory infections and laboratory detections of novel influenza viruses. Community-based surveillance will provide information on clinical severity, age groups affected and risk factors associated with severe disease. Severe outcome surveillance will capture data on hospitalizations and deaths. Laboratory surveillance will include weekly reports of respiratory virus detections. The response activities are adaptable to the demands of different levels of pandemic activity and impact, supported by a set of triggers for the activation and deactivation. Surveillance will be linked with other response components, such as communications, research, assessment and evaluation. This is an evergreen document that will be updated regularly.