MOH's national sentinel surveillance programme for influenza is part of the WHO international laboratory-based surveillance network to detect the emergence and spread of new antigenic variants of influenza viruses. Virological sample collection is on-going and is carried out during both outbreak and non-outbreak periods.In 2011 and 2012, the sentinel surveillance programme involved a total of 169 sites (18 government primary care clinics and 151 private/general practitioner [GP] clinics).
Objective
We evaluated the Singapore Ministry of Health's sentinel surveillance system for influenza virus, which included the monitoring of virological samples from patients with influenza-like illness (ILI) seen at government primary care clinics and private general practitioner clinics in 2011-12.