Strengthening Australia?s WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza

Abstract

During the coming year, the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza (the Centre) will relocate to new facilities at the Victorian Infectious Diseases Reference Laboratory?s (VIDRL) North Melbourne site. There it will expand both in size and in the scope of its activities. This is an exciting opportunity to bring together and build on the complementary strengths of two leading laboratories. A strong revitalised Centre will be key to the management of seasonal and potential pandemic influenza, as well as other emerging respiratory viruses. The Asia-Pacific region seems, disproportionately frequently, to have been the location of such emergences, of which the current global highly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) A H5N1 outbreak has threatened to be the greatest.