Assessing the burden of paediatric influenza in Europe: the European Paediatric Influenza Analysis (EPIA) project.

The European Paediatric Influenza Analysis (EPIA) project is a multi-country project that was created to collect, analyse and present data regarding the paediatric influenza burden in European countries, with the purpose of providing the necessary information to make evidence- based decisions regarding influenza immunisation recom- mendations for children. The initial approach taken is based on existing weekly virological and age-specific influenza- like illness (ILI) data from surveillance networks across Europe. We use a multiple regression model guided by longitudinal weekly patterns of influenza virus to attribute the weekly ILI consultation incidence pattern to each influenza (sub)type, while controlling for the effect of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) epidemics. Modelling the