In view of the emergence of the avian influenza epidemic in South East Asia region, the National Institute of Virology (NIV) will host a meeting on strengthening influenza diagnosis and networking in South East Asia in Pune from May 13. Dr A C Mishra, Director, National Institute of Virology said that the meeting was being conducted by the World Health Organisation-SEARO to improve diagnostic capacity of laboratories in the South East Asia region. National Influenza Centers are the cornerstone of global influenza surveillance. There are seven National Influenza Centers in the South East Asia Region. The director says that it was vital for National Influenza Centers (NIC) to be linked with each other in order to share common goals and objectives of the National Influenza Centers. This meeting will be a good forum for strengthening interactions among staff from the smaller laboratories, more experienced laboratories in the region as well as the staff from World Health Organisation (WHO) collaborating centres and identifying avenues for improvement. According to Mishra the meeting will review existing influenza diagnostic capability in the South-East Asia Region, discuss strategies for strengthening of laboratory diagnostic capacity in the area of influenza, promote networking among national influenza laboratories and centres and with the national avian influenza programme and identify specific actions for follow up at country level.