National Reference Laboratory for Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses at the Institute of Virology, Vaccines, and Sera “Torlak” acquired its status by the Decision on Reference Laboratories for the Control of Infectious Diseases by the Ministry of Health of the Republic of Serbia in 2009, thus entrusted with the responsibility of centralizing and monitoring the circulation of influenza viruses in our country.
The National Reference Laboratory for Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses is characterized by the World Health Organization as the sole National Influenza Center in the Republic of Serbia.
In accordance with defined tasks and obligations, the NRL performs:
- laboratory testing, confirmation, typing (A/B), and subtyping of detected influenza strains (H1pdm, H3, H5, H7) from the territory of the Republic of Serbia,
- collects positive samples, isolates influenza viruses on cell lines, and antigenically characterizes the collected strains,
- sends characterized samples for further analysis to collaborative centers of the World Health Organization, all for the purpose of determining the composition of the influenza vaccine for the next season,
- monitors the circulation of other respiratory viruses in the population.
The NRL informs the Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Serbia daily about the testing results, and on a weekly basis throughout the year, it reports the total number of tests and the results of integrated surveillance (Influenza, SARS-CoV-2, and RSV) to the TESSy database of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control.
You can view the expert methodological instructions for virological surveillance of influenza/COVID-19 in the 2023/2024 season here.
You can view the referral form for laboratory testing and the Case Investigation Form for suspected cases of influenza/COVID-19 in the 2023/2024 season here.
