Strengthening surveillance systems in Denmark

The project UpSurvDK aims to strengthen the national infectious disease surveillance system in Denmark with specific focus on three priority areas: 1) Improving laboratory-based surveillance through the development of common national classifications for clinical microbiology to standardize terminology across laboratories. This includes a comparison between the new common national terminology and the international Systematized Nomenclature of Medicine Clinical Terms (SNOMED CT) to explore options for future interoperability. 2) Strengthening monitoring of zoonotic influenza virus infections in humans through exploring active surveillance. 3) Securing surveillance of bacterial foodborne infections after the introduction of Culture-Independent Diagnostic Testing in clinical microbiology laboratories. UpSurvDK builds and expands on work conducted under the Joint Action UNITED4Surveillance. To make optimal use of existing national expertise and strengthen collaborations within the health sector as well as across sectors as part of a One Health approach, UpSurvDK will furthermore be carried out in a collaborative effort with relevant stakeholders. By covering activities on infrastructure development, capacity building, and piloting, implementation, and uptake according to Member State priority needs, UpSurvDK is expected to result in a more robust, timely and complete integrated surveillance system that contributes to improving national surveillance and early warning.