Electronic communications and communicable disease surveillance at the national level in the European Union

As a result of the communicable disease threats posed by international travel and trade, collaboration between centres undertaking surveillance has developed. This has been successful in identifying outbreaks involving more than one country. Collaboration involving the exchange and sharing of data is dependent upon an effective infrastructure, in particular the access to reliable secure communications. Within the European Union the telematic infrastructure to support communicable disease surveillance is being developed. The future users have undertaken a survey of needs to guide the development of this infrastructure. Their needs include access to reliable secure e-mail, to European datasets which could be interrogated on-line and to directories of experts. A network is now under development.