The WCR algorithm appears to provide a slightly more rapid and sensitive tool for detecting of pandemic influenza -median detection time for this method ranges from 3 to 5 weeks in comparison to 4 to 6 weeks for the other two methods. Although the WCR algorithm seems to do the job more efficiently with the simulated pandemics, it performed poorly with the 2008-09 pandemic data from SERVIS. There could be several possible reasons for this poor performance. First, the 2009 influenza A(H1N1)v epidemic happened outside the normal influenza season and, second, it was mild in severity [33, 34] . In addition, the number of SER-VIS sentinel GPs in the season 2008-09 was at its sparsest level -only 20 practices, as the SERVIS system was in the process of being phased out to be replaced by a system which automatically collected data from GP systems on a daily basis. These three factors will have contributed to poor reporting of the early pandemic cases, notwithstanding the huge media coverage given to the pandemic. This is consistent with the patchiness in the reported ILI cases through SERVIS sentinel GPs between weeks 29 and 41 (Additional file 4). No method will detect a pandemic in its early weeks if the early syndromic influenza data are not reported to the surveillance system. Finally, the 2009 pandemic influenza cases were more spatially heterogeneous than those predicted by the pandemic model. (It is interesting to note that during the period April to July 2009, when there was a sentinel practice within an outbreak area, Greenock and Govanhill in the GGC HB, there was no increased reporting of ILI.) This might have contributed to the observed patchiness in the sentinel reporting.