In the Spotlight - The SurSaUD® Surveillance System in 2014

The SurSaUD® emergency and death surveillance system is one of the tools that enables the InVS to carry out its daily health monitoring, surveillance, and alert missions. It efficiently and responsively complements surveillance systems for infectious diseases (notifiable diseases, laboratory networks, etc.) or environmental health. In some cases, it may serve as the sole reference system for assessing a situation in near real time in the absence of a specific system (surveillance of the effects of consuming melamine-contaminated milk from China in 2008; epiglottitis in the Rhône-Alpes region in 2013; a resurgence of mumps; or the emergence of the new MERS-CoV coronavirus in 2013). Its main properties (sensitivity, responsiveness, flexibility) have enabled its use in a wide variety of situations, ranging from tracking trends in seasonal epidemics (bronchiolitis, gastroenteritis, influenza…) to monitoring large gatherings (the 2008 Rugby World Cup; the 2011 G8 and G20 summits; the 2012 London Olympics; the 2013 Rouen Armada…) and even to assessing the impact of industrial accidents (Dunkirk, 2009; Rouen, 2013) or extreme environmental conditions (heat waves/cold snaps; the 2010 Var floods; cyclone in Réunion in 2013; volcanic eruption in Iceland in 2010). Two documents published in the summer of 2013 (the DGOS/InVS/Atih decree of July 23, 2013, making the transmission of summaries of emergency room visits mandatory (RPU) 12 and the July 12, 2013 directive to the ARS regarding the rollout of electronic certification for death certificates in healthcare facilities) should enable the continued expansion of SurSaUD® (onboarding of new emergency facilities, rollout of electronic death certification).The collaboration established between InVS epidemiologists and partner physicians, through national and regional initiatives (for example, between Cire and Regional Emergency Observatories), enables joint progress in interpreting the information and signals generated by the system. It also helps raise awareness among professionals about the culture of reporting and strengthens the human network, which is essential to any surveillance system.