About the Authors

Thorsten Suess

Affiliation Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Cornelius Remschmidt

Affiliation Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Susanne B. Schink

Affiliation Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Brunhilde Schweiger

Affiliation National Reference Centre for Influenza, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Alla Heider

Affiliation National Reference Centre for Influenza, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Jeanette Milde

Affiliation National Reference Centre for Influenza, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Andreas Nitsche

Affiliation Centre for Biological Security, Division of Highly-Pathogenic Viruses (ZBS1), Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Kati Schroeder

Affiliation Centre for Biological Security, Division of Highly-Pathogenic Viruses (ZBS1), Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Joerg Doellinger

Affiliation Centre for Biological Security, Division of Highly-Pathogenic Viruses (ZBS1), Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Christian Braun

Affiliation Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Walter Haas

Affiliation Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Gérard Krause

Affiliation Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Udo Buchholz

BuchholzU@rki.de

Affiliation Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany

Competing Interests

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Author Contributions

Conceived and designed the experiments: UB GK CB TS CR. Performed the experiments: UB CB SS TS CR. Analyzed the data: BS AH AN KS JD JM. Contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools: BS AH AN KS JD JM. Wrote the paper: TS UB CR. Reviewed and gave input to the manuscript: SS BS AH JM AN KS JD CB WH GK.