The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) () is part of Ireland's

Health Service Executive The Health Service Executive (HSE) () is the publicly funded healthcare system in Ireland, responsible for the provision of health and personal social services. It came into operation on 1 January 2005. The current director-general is Berna ...

History

Establishment

HPSC was set up in 1998 and was formerly known as the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC).

Activities

HPSC produces annual epidemiological reports covering all areas of infectious and communicable disease surveillance carried out in Ireland. It is the designated Competent Body for liaison with

European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is an agency of the European Union (EU) whose mission is to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases. It covers a wide spectrum of activities, such as: surveillance, e ...

(

ECDC The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is an agency of the European Union (EU) whose mission is to strengthen Europe's defences against infectious diseases. It covers a wide spectrum of activities, such as: surveillance, e ...

) and is Ireland's national

World Health Organization The World Health Organization (WHO) is a list of specialized agencies of the United Nations, specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Gen ...

(

WHO The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations which coordinates responses to international public health issues and emergencies. It is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, and has 6 regional offices and 15 ...

) International Health Regulations (IHR) focal point for communicable diseases. HPSC monitors and reports on vaccine uptake and vaccine effectiveness, particularly in relation to the routine schedule of immunisation of babies and school age children. Monitoring of flu vaccine uptake in healthcare workers and the elderly is also carried out by HPSC. The centre coordinates the monitoring of drug-resistant microorganisms and other key measures (such as

hand hygiene Hand washing (or handwashing), also known as hand hygiene, is the act of cleaning one's hands with soap or handwash and water to remove viruses, bacteria, microorganisms, dirt, grease, and other harmful or unwanted substances stuck to the han ...

compliance and antimicrobial consumption monitoring) in the prevention and control of

healthcare-associated infections A hospital-acquired infection, also known as a nosocomial infection (from the Greek , meaning "hospital"), is an infection that is acquired in a hospital or other healthcare facility. To emphasize both hospital and nonhospital settings, it is s ...

. HPSC participates in a number of ECDC-funded research projects including Streptococcus pneumoniae Invasive Disease network (SpID-Net), IMOVE (influenza monitoring vaccine effectiveness) and a sentinel system to assess the burden of whooping cough - PERTINENT. HPSC is a key participant in the Vaccine European New Integrated Collaboration Effort (VENICE) project and contributes to the monitoring of uptake of seasonal influenza vaccine in

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...

( EU) and

European Economic Area The European Economic Area (EEA) was established via the ''Agreement on the European Economic Area'', an international agreement which enables the extension of the European Union's single market to member states of the European Free Trade Asso ...

(EEA). HPSC has been involved in behavioural surveillance among

men who have sex with men Men who have sex with men (MSM) are men who engage in sexual activity with other men, regardless of their sexual orientation or sexual identity. The term was created by epidemiologists in the 1990s, to better study and communicate the spre ...

e.g. Men who have Sex with Men (MSM) Internet Survey Ireland (MISI 2015) and European Men who have sex with men Internet Survey (EMIS) 2010 and 2017.

Infectious disease notification

All medical practitioners, including clinical directors of diagnostic laboratories, are required to notify the Medical Officer of Health(MOH)/Director of Public Health (DPH) of certain diseases. They must in turn notify HPSC.

Serosurveillance

The seroepidemiology unit is a multi-disciplinary team in HPSC and is a co-ordinating centre with overall responsibility for serosurveillance activities in Ireland. Its first published report on COVID-19 seroprevalence in Ireland reported that there is no threshold antibody level offering complete protection against infection but higher antibody levels are likely to be associated with a lower probability of infection.

Training

HPSC is a training site for the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training ( EPIET) and the Faculty of Public Health Medicine,

Royal College of Physicians of Ireland The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI), () is an Irish professional body dedicated to improving the practice of general medicine and related medical specialty, medical specialities, chiefly through the accreditation of physicians by e ...

COVID-19

HPSC has been monitoring the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

since it was notified by the

. The general public have been advised by the

Irish Government The Government of Ireland () is the executive authority of Ireland, headed by the , the head of government. The government – also known as the cabinet – is composed of ministers, each of whom must be a member of the , which consists of ...

to follow advice from the

(HSE) and the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) to protect their health. The surveillance of COVID-19 cases in Ireland has been integrated into the existing national Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR) system since COVID-19 was made a notifiable disease on 20 February 2020. HPSC provides official data to Ireland's COVID-19 datahub. HPSC launched their Epidemiology of COVID-19 in Ireland Data Hub in February 2022. The Data Hub provided the latest data relating to cases, deaths and outbreaks in Ireland. The COVID-19 hub was replaced in December 2023 by a new Respiratory Virus Notification Data Hub. This hub provides the latest data for COVID-19, influenza and RSV cases in Ireland. The hub also includes data on hospitalised cases, ICU cases, deaths and outbreaks in Ireland.

''EPI Insight''

EPI Insight is a monthly newsletter published by HPSC. It was established in 1999 and describes itself as the surveillance report of HPSC. HPSC states Epi Insight's purpose is to improve the health of the Irish population by providing the best information on disease and aims to publish timely data on infectious diseases for use locally, regionally and nationally.

CIDR

HPSC developed Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting (CIDR). CIDR is an information system to manage the surveillance and control of infectious and communicable diseases in Ireland. Due to the increased burden of work caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the CIDR Team looked to a robotic solution to automate data processing tasks.

Publications

* HPSC publications * Epi Insight

Data Hubs

HPSC has developed three infectious disease data hubs. * National Notifiable Disease Hub * Respiratory Virus Notification Data Hub * Seroepidemiology of COVID-19 Data Hub

References

External links

*
National Notifiable Disease Hub

Respiratory Virus Notification Data Hub

Seroepidemiology of COVID-19 in Ireland Data Hub
{{Authority control Health Service Executive Medical and health organisations based in the Republic of Ireland National public health agencies