The European Respiratory Diseases Forecasting Hub (RespiCast)

RespiCast combines multiple forecasting hubs for several respiratory disease indicators, including influenza-like-illness (ILI), acute respiratory infection (ARI), and indicators related to COVID-19.

Teams from all over the world are invited to submit weekly forecasts for one or more disease indicators for one or more countries. These will be collated in one-to-four-week short-term forecasts on indicators - for example on the number of expected cases - for ILI, ARI, and COVID-19 across Europe as generated by independent teams. Those teams use a wide range of modelling infectious disease dynamics approaches. Individual forecasts are combined to create an ensemble forecast - an established way to achieve improved forecasting performance for infectious disease dynamics.

Pulling this information together in one place, the data, once available in RespiCast, aims to give decision-makers as well as the general public with reliable information about the epidemiological situation in Europe relating to respiratory illnesses in the near future.

RespiCast is a collaboration between the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the ISI Foundation, and the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.