WP2 Outbreak detection

Infectious disease outbreaks can have a considerable impact on the health and health systems of countries. Timely and accurate detection of such events will help to contain further spread of disease and reduce harmful consequences. Automated tools can help manage and foster analysis across different datasets. Especially in context of limited human resources or high workload, this can contribute to a comprehensive surveillance and timely implementation of measures. Many countries do not use any methods for automatic outbreak detection yet or use methods that have been designed for other surveillance systems and datasets than their own. Also, there are no extensive evaluations of outbreak detection methods for a broad range of surveillance data. To address these challenges, the objective of this WP is to support outbreak detection and pandemic preparedness by improving real time surveillance for a timelier coordinated response. By improving national surveillance systems, the goal is to strengthen overall surveillance in Europe.

This WP is structured in two main technical tasks (improving laboratory based-reporting and outbreak & signal detection) with associated subtasks including pilots. Lessons learnt from the pilot projects are envisaged to be shared with other participating countries, in form of workshops, reports and site visits.