The Global Influenza Hospital Surveillance Network (GIHSN) is an international platform that collects standardized epidemiologic and clinical data from hospitalized patients with severe acute respiratory infections across low-, middle-, and high-income countries in both hemispheres. For the 2024–2025 season, the network includes 28 sites and 113 hospitals across 24 countries. Findings relating to circulating viruses are shared with national public health authorities, the World Health Organization (WHO), and the broader scientific community.

In Lebanon, The Center for Infectious Diseases Research (CIDR), based at the American University Beirut Medical Center (AUBMC) has led the GIHSN activities since 2019 through a hospital-based surveillance system that collects standardized demographic, clinical, and laboratory data from patients of all age groups hospitalized due to a possible respiratory viral infection. This national contribution strengthens regional and global influenza surveillance efforts, supports evidence-based public health decision-making, and enhances local capacity for molecular testing and genomic analysis in alignment with collaboration frameworks between GIHSN and the Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS). Participating hospitals are located in different governorates in Lebanon and constituting the Lebanese sentinel surveillance network of GIHSN: AUBMC, Rafic Hariri University Hospital (RHUH), Makassed General Hospital (MGH) (2019-2021), and Al Zahraa Hospital University Medical Center (ZHUMC) from Beirut, Keserwan Medical Center (KMC) from Mount Lebanon, New Mazloum Hospital (NMH) from North Lebanon, Hammoud Hospital University Medical Center (HHUMC) from South Lebanon, and Bekaa Hospital (BH) from Bekaa.