Triple S Project: Syndromic Surveillance Survey and Assessment towards Guidelines for Europe

The International Society for Disease Surveillance is pleased to announce its role as an advisory member of the Triple-S Project in Europe.  Former Board Director Duncan Cooper will be serving as ISDS' liaison throughout the project, and will continue to provide updates as they become available. 

Below is the project's first press release:

Triple S (Syndromic Surveillance Survey and Assessment towards Guidelines for Europe) is a European project to develop guidelines to strengthen public health surveillance and rapid response to prevent and assess health threat impact has been announced. This work covers health threat or impact from both infectious and environmental hazards. The programme, co-financed by the European commission, involves twenty four organisations from fourteen countries. It aims to produce a handbook for member states to allow future early warning systems to be developed and assessed.

The Public Health Action Programme Triple S (Syndromic Surveillance Survey, Assessment towards Guidelines for Europe, grant agreement GA 2009.11.12) will review and analyse European syndromic surveillance systems. The program is co-financed by the European commission through the Executive Agency for Health and Consumers. It encompasses an inventory of existing and proposed syndromic surveillance systems, including country visits for an in-depth understanding of selected systems. The project will also provide scientific and technical guidance for the development and implementation of syndromic surveillance systems for both human and animal health, according to the needs and expectations of the member states. The aim of the Triple S project is to increase the European capacity for real-time or near-real time surveillance and monitoring of the health burden of expected and unexpected health related events.

The first meeting for this three-year project, coordinated by the French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (InVS), was held in Luxembourg from November 22nd to 25th, 2010. The Health and Consumer Directorate General of the European Commission (DG Sanco), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the World Health Organization Europe (WHO/Europe) and the International Society for Disease Surveillance (ISDS) are members of the advisory board, to ensure good exchange of practices and expertise at both the European and the global level.

For further information please contact Duncan Cooper.