Sweden, Germany, Poland
Three different countries, three different influenza control situations, three different fields of activity requiring ESWI’s first attention. Every sender (NIC, government…) wants to get his message (recommendations, benefits of vaccination…) across to the receiver (policy makers, GP’s, public…) via the communication tools (national campaign, web site…) of his choice.
Applied to the situation in the pilot countries, we see the following:
Sweden
Sweden has many different senders issuing scientific and medical data and recommendations. Collaboration between senders is a must.
Germany
The sender has all the necessary data and recommendations thanks to a well-equipped surveillance and sentinel system. Communication should get prior attention.
Poland
There is no sentinel system, no reimbursement, no practical guidelines, and no mandatory official recommendations. The sender needs to systematically gather scientific and medical data before an efficient communication policy can be put in place.
Country-specific achievements
Sweden
The collaboration with the Swedish influenza network in particular has been very successful. ESWI has established a local network and identified some of the major hurdles in Sweden to explain the ever-existing low vaccine uptake rates.
Germany
In Germany, representatives of German health insurance companies and other stakeholders were invited to the Second German Influenza Congress (Erfurt, 9-11 September 2004). All attendees agreed on the meeting’s success as it led to practical solutions for a number of urgent and complex problems. Dr. W. Haas, Robert Koch Institute, joined ESWI as an adviser.
Poland
In Poland, priority was given to the publication of influenza guidelines for General Practitioners by the Polish College of Family Physicians. The Polish guidelines on Influenza Prevention and Management were issued in October 2006 and distributed to 15,000 primary health care physicians (including all 9,000 family doctors). An English version of this document can be obtained here.
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