Flu season in Poland
Current flu activity in Poland — based on ECDC ERVISS weekly data, set against the parallel COVID-19 and RSV trajectories.
Current situation: Influenza
In week 15 of 2026, activity of influenza (seasonal flu) in Poland is low. The trend — derived from clinical surveillance — is falling. Over a four-week comparison, a clear decline is visible.
The classification is based on the ECDC ERVISS weekly reports, drawing on sentinel and virological data from the National Institute of Public Health NIH - National Research Institute (NIZP PZH). Seasonally, infection waves in Poland typically peak between January and March; activity is usually markedly lower during the summer months. How severe a given season becomes depends on the circulating virus variant and the population's immune status, among other factors.
Data sources and methodology
The current picture for Poland is built on the European Respiratory Virus Surveillance Summary (ERVISS), published weekly by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). the National Institute of Public Health (NIZP PZH) via the SENTINEL system is the national public-health authority that feeds ERVISS with sentinel primary care and virology data.
ECDC ERVISS
ERVISS is ECDC's weekly pan-European surveillance summary for influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and RSV. National authorities — in Poland's case the National Institute of Public Health (NIZP PZH) via the SENTINEL system — submit harmonised indicators every week, which ECDC publishes in a standardised dataset on Thursdays. Using ERVISS rather than each country's native portal ensures cross-country comparability.
ILI / ARI consultation rates and positivity
the National Institute of Public Health (NIZP PZH) via the SENTINEL system operates a sentinel network of general practices that report weekly rates of patients consulting for influenza-like illness (ILI) or acute respiratory infection (ARI). A subset of patients is swabbed and tested by reference laboratories, producing pathogen-specific positivity rates for flu, SARS-CoV-2 and RSV.
Why this source
Combining consultation incidence with virological positivity yields a pathogen-specific weekly incidence signal (ILI × positivity / 100). This is the standard European methodology and provides a more robust view than either indicator alone — consultation rates capture illness burden, positivity confirms which pathogen is driving it.
Qualitative classification
The “low”, “moderate” and “high” categories follow seasonal reference values and epidemiological thresholds calibrated to match our classifications for other countries. The ILI × positivity / 100 product is scaled to comparable thresholds using a divisor of 3, which aligns European sentinel peaks with the consultation-equivalent scale used elsewhere. Data refreshes weekly when ECDC publishes the latest ERVISS update, typically on Thursdays.
Frequently asked questions
When is flu season in Poland?
Flu season in Poland runs through the cold half of the year, with meaningful activity usually building from December onward. Peaks tend to arrive slightly later than in the DACH region, most often between January and March. The exact timing shifts year to year depending on the dominant influenza subtype and residual immunity. Polish surveillance bulletins treat the winter trough of January–March as the core window where primary-care load is highest.
Who runs flu surveillance in Poland?
Influenza surveillance in Poland is coordinated by NIZP PZH — the National Institute of Public Health (Państwowy Zakład Higieny) — which operates the national SENTINEL and non-sentinel reporting networks. NIZP PZH publishes regular influenza bulletins combining clinical ILI reports from primary-care sites with virological confirmations from reference laboratories. Aggregated indicators then feed into ECDC's ERVISS platform at the European level, where Poland's signal can be compared directly with other EU/EEA countries.
How does Poland report into European flu data?
Polish weekly indicators are transmitted to the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and published through ERVISS, the European Respiratory Virus Surveillance Summary. ERVISS harmonises country-level signals — ILI/ARI consultation rates, positivity, and subtype distribution — so that Poland's trajectory can be read alongside neighbours like Germany, Czechia, and the Baltic states. This means Polish flu activity is visible in both NIZP PZH's national bulletins and ECDC's pan-European dashboards.
How does Poland's flu season compare to Germany's?
The overall shape is similar — a winter wave driven by the same circulating influenza A and B strains — but Poland's peak typically lags the German one by a few weeks, and the late-winter tail (February–March) is often more prominent. Because both countries report into ERVISS, the relative timing of peaks is directly observable. In colder seasons with an eastward strain drift, Polish activity can remain elevated after German indicators have already started falling.
How do I read Poland's flu activity levels?
NIZP PZH and ECDC classify activity qualitatively rather than by absolute case counts, using tiers such as baseline, low, moderate, high, and very high. These tiers are derived from historical reference ranges for ILI/ARI consultation rates and laboratory positivity. The goal is to signal whether the current week's pressure is ordinary for the time of year or unusually intense, without implying precision the underlying sentinel data cannot support.
Want the actual numbers?
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