Infections in the Czech Republic – Information System of Infectious Diseases
Until the end of 2017, mandatory reporting, recording and analysis of infectious diseases in the Czech Republic was performed by means of the EpiDat programme.
It was replaced by a new system, ISIN (Infectious Disease Information System), which was created as a web-based application and has been in use since the beginning of 2018. Infectious disease reporting to this system constitutes the basis for local, regional, national and transnational control of the spread of infectious diseases, assessment of the development of the epidemiological situation and for infection reporting from the Czech Republic to the European Union and the World Health Organization. The development of the system, carried out by the Institute of Health Information and Statistics of the Czech Republic in close cooperation with the National Institute of Public Health, the Ministry of Health and the Hygiene Service, is ongoing and numerous important functionalities are still being added.
Legally it is based on binding regulations, in particular:
1) Act No. 258/2000 Coll., on Protection of Public Health, as amended,
2) Decree No. 473/2008 Coll. of MZ CR on System of Epidemiological Vigilance for Selected Infections, as subsequently amended (Decree No 275/2010 Coll. and Decree No 233/2011 Coll.),
3) Decree No 306/2012 Coll., on Conditions of Prevention and Spread of Infectious Diseases and Hygiene Requirements for the Operation of Medical Facilities and Social Care Institutions,
as well as regulations binding on the member countries of the European Union and the World Health Organisation.
The statistical unit is represented by an infectious disease. Confirmed, probable or possible cases of all infectious diseases are reported, with the exception of tuberculosis, infections mainly transmitted through sexual contact, HIV and acute respiratory infections (ARI), which are tracked by other separate information systems and registers.
The main outputs from the ISIN (and formerly EpiDat) system are published regularly in the Zprávy Centra epidemiologie a mikrobiologie (News from the Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology) journal and on the website of the National Institute of Public Health.