A new decade, a new seasonal influenza: the Council of the European Union Recommendation on seasonal influenza vaccination.

Europe is coming to the end of its autumn-winter wave of the 2009 influenza A(H1N1) pandemic. Transmission has been continuing in the east and south-east of Europe, but the signs from other parts of Europe before Christmas indicated that the circulation of the pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus was declining. Though as is to be expected the associated burden on hospitals and especially on intensive care, and the number of deaths are declining less quickly and with some delay [1,2]. Worldwide in almost all countries with virological surveillance pandemic viruses are pre-dominating apart from co-circulating influenza B viruses [3]. In Europe, there have hardly been any influenza (AH3) viruses in this season so far, and even fewer of the previous seasonal influenza A(H1) viruses [1].