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

Health Service Executive The Health Service Executive (HSE) ( ga, Feidhmeannacht na Seirbhíse Sláinte) 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 ...

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, ...

(

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 specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of ...

(

WHO Who or WHO may refer to: * Who (pronoun), an interrogative or relative pronoun * Who?, one of the Five Ws in journalism * World Health Organization Arts and entertainment Fictional characters * Who, a creature in the Dr. Seuss book '' Horton He ...

) 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, or other harmful and unwanted substances stuck to the hand ...

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 health care facility. To emphasize both hospital and nonhospital settings, it is so ...

. 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 political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been de ...

( 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 As ...

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

men who have sex with men Men who have sex with men (MSM) are male persons who engage in sexual activity with members of the same sex. The term was created in the 1990s by epidemiologists to study the spread of disease among all men who have sex with men, regardless of ...

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 The European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) Fellowship provides training and practical experience in intervention epidemiology at the national centres for Public health surveillance, surveillance and control of communicable ...

(

EPIET The European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET) Fellowship provides training and practical experience in intervention epidemiology at the national centres for surveillance and control of communicable diseases in the European Un ...

) and the Faculty of Public Health Medicine,

Royal College of Physicians of Ireland The Royal College of Physicians of Ireland (RCPI), ( ga, Coláiste Ríoga Lianna na hÉireann) is an Irish professional body dedicated to improving the practice of general medicine and related medical specialities, chiefly through the accredit ...

COVID-19

HPSC has been monitoring the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

since it was notified by the

. The general public have been advised by the

Irish Government The Government of Ireland ( ga, Rialtas na hÉireann) is the cabinet that exercises executive authority in Ireland. The Constitution of Ireland vests executive authority in a government which is headed by the , the head of government. The gover ...

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 provides the latest data relating to 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

References

External links

*
Epidemiology of COVID-19 in Ireland 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