Use of Ambulance Dispatch Calls for Surveillance of Severe Acute Respiratory Infections

I nfluenza virus infection is associated with severe illness and death and causes a high burden of disease (1). The World Health Organization recommends that countries improve surveillance of severe influenza infections (2). However, surveillance based on hospital and intensive care unit admissions for severe acute respiratory infections or laboratory-confirmed influenza is still limited in most countries, raising the question whether there are other routinely collected data that could be used to monitor severe influenza infections (2,3).