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. 2025 Mar;19(3):e70091.
doi: 10.1111/irv.70091.

The Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network: A Multicountry Public Health Collaboration

Marta C Nunes  1 , Cecile Chauvel  1 , Sonia M Raboni  2 , F Xavier López-Labrador  3 , Melissa K Andrew  4 , Nazish Badar  5 , Vicky Baillie  6 , Antonin Bal  7 , Kedar Baral  8 , Elsa Baumeister  9 , Celina Boutros  10 , Elena Burtseva  11 , Daouda Coulibaly  12 , Ben Cowling  13 , Daria Danilenko  14 , Ghassan Dbaibo  10 , Gregory Destras  7 , Ndongo Dia  15 , Anca Cristina Drăgănescu  16 , Heloisa I G Giamberardino  17 , Doris Gomez-Camargo  18 , Laurence Josset  7 , Parvaiz A Koul  19 , Jan Kyncl  20 , Victor Alberto Laguna-Torres  21 , Odile Launay  22 , Liem Binh Luong Nugyen  23 , Shelly McNeil  24 , Snežana Medić  25 , Ainara Mira-Iglesias  3 , Alla Mironenko  26 , Aneta Nitsch-Osuch  27 , Alejandro Orrico-Sánchez  3 , Nancy A Otieno  28 , Hadrien Regue  29 , Guillermo M Ruiz-Palacios  30 , Afif Ben Salah  31 , Muhammad Salman  5 , Oana Săndulescu  32 , Viviana Simon  33 , Anna Sominina  14 , Emilia Sordillo  33 , Mine Durusu Tanriover  34 , Serhat Unal  35 , Harm van Bakel  33 , Philippe Vanhems  36 , Tao Zhang  37 , Catherine Commaille-Chapus  38 , Camille Hunsinger  38 , Joseph Bresee  39 , Bruno Lina  7 , John W McCauley  40 , Justin R Ortiz  41 , Cecile Viboud  42 , Wenqing Zhang  43 , Laurence Torcel-Pagnon  44 , Cedric Mahe  44 , Sandra S Chaves  44
Affiliations

The Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network: A Multicountry Public Health Collaboration

Marta C Nunes et al. Influenza Other Respir Viruses. 2025 Mar.

Abstract

Respiratory viruses represent a significant public health threat. There is the need for robust and coordinated surveillance to guide global health responses. Established in 2012, the Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network (GIHSN) addresses this need by collecting clinical and virological data on persons with acute respiratory illnesses across a network of hospitals worldwide. GIHSN utilizes a standardized patient enrolment and data collection protocol across its study sites. It leverages pre-existing national infrastructures and expert collaborations to facilitate comprehensive data collection. This includes demographic, clinical, epidemiological, and virologic data, and whole genome sequencing (WGS) for a subset of viruses. Sequencing data are shared in the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data (GISAID). GIHSN uses financing and governance approaches centered around public-private partnerships. Over time, GIHSN has included more than 100 hospitals across 27 countries and enrolled more than 168,000 hospitalized patients, identifying 27,562 cases of influenza and 44,629 of other respiratory viruses. GIHSN has expanded beyond influenza to include other respiratory viruses, particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic. In November 2023, GIHSN strengthened its global impact through a memorandum of understanding with the World Health Organization, aimed at enhancing collaborative efforts and data sharing for improved health responses. GIHSN exemplifies the value of integrating scientific research with public health initiatives through global collaboration and public-private partnerships governance. Future efforts should enhance the scalability of such models and ensure their sustainability through continued public and private support.

Keywords: influenza; international; public–private partnerships; respiratory viruses; surveillance.

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Conflict of interest statement

LT‐P, CM, and SSC work for Sanofi when not seconded to the Foundation for Influenza Epidemiology.

Figures

FIGURE 1
FIGURE 1
Distribution of the collaborating sites participating in the Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network. (A) Geographical distribution of the collaborating sites participating in the Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network. (B) Number of collaborating sites participating in the Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network per season.
FIGURE 2
FIGURE 2
Patients' enrolment and data collection flow in the Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network. GIHSN: Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network; RSV: respiratory syncytial virus; SARS‐CoV‐2: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2; WGS: whole genome sequencing; GISAID: Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data.
FIGURE 3
FIGURE 3
Distribution of enrolled patients in the Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network from 2012 to 2023 according to age and country income level.
FIGURE 4
FIGURE 4
Distribution of detected viruses from 2012 to 2023 in the enrolled patients in the Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network. RSV: respiratory syncytial virus; SARS‐CoV‐2: severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2.
FIGURE 5
FIGURE 5
Governance and operationalization of the Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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