About the Authors

Maria D. Van Kerkhove

Affiliations Global Influenza Programme, World Health Organization, Medical Research Council Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Katelijn A. H. Vandemaele

Affiliation Global Influenza Programme, World Health Organization

Vivek Shinde

Affiliation Global Influenza Programme, World Health Organization

Giovanna Jaramillo-Gutierrez

Affiliation Global Influenza Programme, World Health Organization

Artemis Koukounari

Affiliation Medical Research Council Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Christl A. Donnelly

Affiliation Medical Research Council Centre for Outbreak Analysis and Modelling, Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Imperial College London, London, United Kingdom

Luis O. Carlino

Affiliation Ministerio de Salud de la Nación, Buenos Aires, Argentina

Rhonda Owen

Affiliation Influenza Surveillance Section, Surveillance Branch, Office of Health Protection, Department of Health and Ageing, Woden, Australia

Beverly Paterson

Affiliation Influenza Surveillance Section, Surveillance Branch, Office of Health Protection, Department of Health and Ageing, Woden, Australia

Louise Pelletier

Affiliation Influenza Surveillance Section, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ontario, Canada

Julie Vachon

Affiliation Influenza Surveillance Section, Public Health Agency of Canada, Ontario, Canada

Claudia Gonzalez

Affiliation Departamento de Epidemiología, División de Planificación Sanitaria, Ministerio de Salud de Chile, Santiago, Chile

Yu Hongjie

Affiliation Office for Disease Control and Emergency Response, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention Beijing, China

Feng Zijian

Affiliation Office for Disease Control and Emergency Response, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention Beijing, China

Shuk Kwan Chuang

Affiliation Surveillance and Epidemiology Branch, Centre for Health Protection, Centre for Health Protection of Department of Health, Hong Kong

Albert Au

Affiliation Surveillance and Epidemiology Branch, Centre for Health Protection, Centre for Health Protection of Department of Health, Hong Kong

Silke Buda

Affiliation Department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Gerard Krause

Affiliation Department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Walter Haas

Affiliation Department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Isabelle Bonmarin

Affiliation Département des Maladies Infectieuses, Institut de Veille, Sanitaire, Saint-Maurice Cedex, France

Kiyosu Taniguichi

Affiliation Infectious Disease Surveillance Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan

Kensuke Nakajima

Affiliation Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Tokyo, Japan

Tokuaki Shobayashi

Affiliation Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Tokyo, Japan

Yoshihiro Takayama

Affiliation Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Tokyo, Japan

Tomi Sunagawa

Affiliation Infectious Disease Surveillance Center, National Institute of Infectious Diseases, Tokyo, Japan

Jean Michel Heraud

Affiliation Virology Unit, Institut Pasteur from Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar

Arnaud Orelle

Affiliation Virology Unit, Institut Pasteur from Madagascar, Antananarivo, Madagascar

Ethel Palacios

Affiliation Directorate General of Epidemiology, Mexico City, Mexico

Marianne A. B. van der Sande

Affiliation Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands

C. C. H. Lieke Wielders

Affiliation Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, Centre for Infectious Disease Control, National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Bilthoven, the Netherlands

Darren Hunt

Affiliation New Zealand Ministry of Health, Wellington, New Zealand

Jeffrey Cutter

Affiliation Communicable Diseases Division at the Ministry of Health, Singapore

Vernon J. Lee

Affiliations Biodefence Centre, Ministry of Defence, Singapore, Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore

Juno Thomas

Affiliation Epidemiology and Surveillance Unit, Respiratory Virus Unit, National Institute for Communicable Diseases, National Health Laboratory Service, Johannesburg, South Africa

Patricia Santa-Olalla

Affiliation Coordinating Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies, Dirección General de Salud Pública y Sanidad Exterior Ministerio de Sanidad y Política Social, Madrid, Spain

Maria J. Sierra-Moros

Affiliation Coordinating Centre for Health Alerts and Emergencies, Dirección General de Salud Pública y Sanidad Exterior Ministerio de Sanidad y Política Social, Madrid, Spain

Wanna Hanshaoworakul

Affiliation Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand

Kumnuan Ungchusak

Affiliation Department of Disease Control, Ministry of Public Health, Nonthaburi, Thailand

Richard Pebody

Affiliation Health Protection Agency, London, United Kingdom

Seema Jain

Affiliation Epidemiology and Prevention Branch, Influenza Division, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, United States of America

Anthony W. Mounts

mountsa@who.int

Affiliation Global Influenza Programme, World Health Organization

on behalf of the WHO Working Group for Risk Factors for Severe H1N1pdm Infection

Competing Interests

CG worked for the Ministry of Health of Chile from 1997 to August 2010, in the Department of Epidemiology. CG has been involved in the process of preparing and developing the National Pandemic Plan since 2002. During the pandemic CG was in charge of the coordination of the Executive Committee for outbreaks and health emergencies in Chile. This committee was responsible for making decisions and implementing measures for prevention and control. Also, until August 2010, CG participated in the implementation of IHR 2005 in Chile. During the pandemic, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) provided funds to the Ministry of Health and the Institute of Public Health for studies and improvement of epidemiological surveillance. CG was not responsible for managing these resources. PAHO also delivered primers and other supplies for the laboratory diagnosis of influenza (RT-PCR). They provided computers for influenza sentinel centers for improving the opportunity of reporting, which also included the development of a web application for online notification. CG was a member of the Review Committee on the Functioning of the International Health Regulations (2005) and on Pandemic Influenza A (H1N1), 2009, between April 2010 and April 2011. The result of the work of this committee was submitted to the World Health Assembly in May 2011. In December 2010 (29 November to 15 December) CG was part of a mission to assess the health sector response to pandemic influenza A (H1N1) in Mexico. This mission was requested by the Ministry of Health of Mexico to PAHO. Other mission members were Dr. Jarbas Barbosa (Brazil), Dr. Hande Harmanci (WHO), Dr. Juan Pablo Sarmiento (Colombia), Dr. Ronald St. John (Canada). For this work CG received airfare and per diem supplemented by the standards of PAHO. CG has been invited to present the Chilean experience during the influenza pandemic 2009 in various national and international conferences. CG currently works at the Universidad del Desarrollo (Santiago, Chile) as a teacher and researcher; also at EPI-Sur Consultants, an institution dedicated to providing advisory services and consulting in the field of international health for agencies, governments, and NGOs. EPI-Sur Consultants have worked for PAHO in the field of infectious diseases (not on influenza). VJL has received unrelated research funding from GlaxoSmithKline. JT received a travel grant from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (via an Influenza Cooperative Agreement Grant) to attend the “Options for the Control of Influenza VII” conference in Hong Kong, 3–7 September 2010, to present a poster entitled “Fatal pandemic influenza A(H1N1)2009 infections in HIV-infected persons, South Africa.” All other authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: AWM MDVK KAHV VS GJG. Analyzed the data: MDVK KAHV VS GJG AWM CAD AK. Wrote the paper: MDVK KAHV VS GJG AWM. ICMJE criteria for authorship read and met: MDVK KAHV VS GJG LOC RO LP JV CG YH FZ SKC AA SB GK WH IB KT KN TS YT TS JMH AO EP MABV LW DH JC VJL JT PSO MJS WH JKU RP SJ AWM CAD AK. Agree with the manuscript's results and conclusions: MDVK KAHV VS GJG LOC RO LP JV CG YH FZ SKC AA SB GK WH IB KT KN TS YT TS JMH AO EP MABV LW DH JC VJL JT PSO MJS WH JKU RP SJ AWM CAD AK. Wrote the first draft of the paper: MDVK KAHV VS GJG AWM. Reviewed and edited several versions of the manuscript: LOC RO LP JV CG YH FZ SKC AA SB GK WH IB KT KN TS YT TS JMH AO EP MABV LW DH JC VJL JT PSO MJS WH JKU RP SJ.