Influenza associated excess mortality in Germany, 1985 – 2001

Abstract
Influenza-associated excess mortality is widely used to assess the severity of influenza epidemics. In Germany, however, it is not yet established as a routine component of influenza surveillance. We therefore applied a simple method based on the annual distribution of monthly relative mortality (relative mortality distribution method, RMDM) to a time-series of German monthly all-cause mortality data from 1985–2001 to estimate influenza-associated excess mortality. Results were compared to those obtained by cyclical regression.