Outbreak surveillance
The Health Protection team within Public Health is responsible for developing and maintaining effective systems for the surveillance of communicable disease and environmental hazards. The team works together with Environmental Health and the Pathology Lab and Infection Prevention and Control at Nobles Hospital to assess current data on emerging infections.
This regular surveillance occurs year-round and helps to inform and influence local and national Public Health actions, policies and strategies.
The Health Intelligence Team has produced weekly surveillance reports that have provided an overview of respiratory illnesses on the Isle of Man. There has been a change in the content of the reports from solely focusing on Covid-19 to a broader respiratory surveillance to align with recommendations by the World Health Organisation. The previous reports are located below:
The Surveillance of Seasonal Respiratory Illnesses Report commenced in September 2022, the report collected data on GP consultation for respiratory infections, Emergency Department attendances for respiratory illnesses, respiratory deaths, vaccine statistics and clinical surveillance (swab testing).
The COVID-19 Weekly Surveillance Report ran from August 2021 to August 2022 and collected data on positive COVID tests, vaccine uptake, COVID-related deaths and waste water surveillance.
Public Health recognises that there may be future waves of COVID-19 and continues to monitor the levels of COVID-19 via:
- 'flu like illness' and 'Covid-19' reports in the UK including:
- Regular meetings with Manx Care laboratory staff and the Infection Control Team, where updates are provided regarding patterns of infection detected in inpatients
- Qualitative information from Manx Care leadership, such as changes in sickness levels in staff and pressures on hospital capacity
- Monitoring undertaken at UK and Global levels by the WHO
If any signal regarding rising rates of COVID-19 is detected by these means, Public Health will re-commence more intensive weekly surveillance. Surveillance of all respiratory illnesses is also being planned for next winter.
