Clinical practice guidelines for influenza

Overview

This WHO Clinical practice guideline for influenza is an update and expansion from the previously published WHO guideline on the clinical management of patients with severe influenza or at risk of severe influenza. 

These updated guidelines provide recommendations on the management of both severe and non-severe influenza and also includes recommendations on the use of antiviral medications to prevent influenza virus infection in individuals exposed to the virus in the previous 48 hours. This update applies to patients with seasonal influenza viruses, pandemic influenza viruses and novel influenza A viruses known to cause severe illness in infected humans. 

This update also includes baseline risk estimates for hospitalization and death and proposed definitions of patients at high or extremely high risk of developing severe influenza, so as to enable the recommendations to be targeted appropriately.