The National Research System (NaReS) of the College of Family Physicians of Canada  recruits and communicates with sentinels for the National FluWatch Program of the Immunization and Respiratory Infections Division (IRID) of the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) in 7 provinces and 3 territories. 

If you are interested in becoming a FluWatch sentinel, please contact Jamie Jensen, CFPC-NaReS FluWatch Sentinel Coordinator at 905 629-0900 x 426 or 1 800 387-6197 x 426 or e-mail jjensen@cfpc.ca

Family physician sentinel and nurse sentinel reporting is vital to the FluWatch program, as the key indicator of influenza-like illness (ILI) in the general population.  The network of FluWatch sentinels, a unique team of dedicated physicians across Canada with expertise in influenza surveillance, serves not only to monitor weekly ILI but contributes to the collection of clinical samples for virological monitoring of the influenza virus as well.

Every year, the FluWatch team has continued some activities throughout the summer, interpreting virological data in Canada and publishing bi-weekly reports of influenza activity in Canada and around the world. This past year, due to the treat of emerging viruses Health Canada requested that ILI data be sent continuously every week, consistent with reporting during the regular season.

In addition to surveillance for the threat of various emerging viruses, a recommendation from the Canadian Pandemic Plan, maintaining year-round monitoring with sentinel surveillance of influenza-like illness has other benefits:

• Influenza viruses continuously circulate around the world and new viruses emerging in any location can swiftly enter the Canadian population through travel and tourism. Weekly reporting year-round provides continual monitoring and preparedness for unexpected events.
• Influenza-like illness is caused by a number of different agents, thus monitoring trends in illness will enable us to explore the year-round seasonality of influenza as well as that of other respiratory viruses (RSV, adenovirus, parainfluenza viruses).
• Increases in influenza-like illness, together with trends in laboratory detections, can alert us to not only outbreaks of influenza during the influenza season but also to year-round outbreaks or epidemics of other respiratory viruses or agents of bioterrorism.
• Year-round disease surveillance allows us to maintain a ‘rapid response’ network of sentinels across Canada while providing us with annual baseline data.