Institut de Veille Sanitaire (InVS), Paris, France
Contact person
Dr JC Desenclos or Dr Henriette de ValkDépartement des Maladies Infectieuses
Institut de Veille Sanitaire
12, rue du Val d’Osne
FR-94415 Saint Maurice CEDEX
Paris, France
Tel +33 1 41 79 6720
Fax +33 1 41 79 6872
Description of the institute
The InVS was created in 1998 from the Réseau National de Santé Publique (RNSP), which had been created in June 1992. The missions of the InVS are: to co-ordinate and implement public health surveillance at a national level, to alert national public health authorities on potential threats to health, to assist local, district, regional and national public health authorities in disease control and prevention, and to study the determinants of changes of trends of diseases. The missions of the InVS apply to the fields of infectious diseases, environmental and occupational health, and non-infectious diseases (chronic diseases, cancer, injuries...). It is organised in departments, one for each of the above mentioned fields, completed by a department on international health and services for communication, computers and telematic, and administrative and financial affairs. The institute coordinates or participates in several European projects and has international activities outside Europe (response to outbreaks, collaborative surveillance projects, training programmes and applied research) through the department on international health.Training site
The InVS provides two training sites:- The infectious diseases department (Département des Maladies Infectieuses [DMI]) since 1995
- Environmental health department (Département Santé Environnement [DSE]) since 2005
The present description applies to the EPIET training site located at the infectious disease department. For the description for the training site located at the environmental health department please click on the link.
The DMI has a staff of about 70, including about 45 epidemiologists. It is responsible for: National surveillance of infectious diseases (mandatory notifications, laboratory networks, hospital based networks....); Providing assistance for District or Regional Health Departments in outbreak investigation, co-ordinating or conducting investigation of outbreaks of national or regional importance; and Conducting or co-ordinating planned studies (applied research) on infectious diseases risk factors to guide prevention and control strategies and the evaluation of prevention activities or programmes. Those planned studies may include modelling of infectious diseases
Regional epidemiological units (CIRE) that are regional offices of the InVS have been developed during the last 8 years (18 have been created, including two overseas). These regional units, usually composed of a staff of at least 5, including 3 to 4 epidemiologists, coordinate a regional alert and surveillance program in close "liaison" with the InVS. For infectious diseases outbreak investigation the interaction between DMI and CIRE is important and daily. In the field of nosocomial infection, the DMI collaborates closely, within a structured network, with five inter-regional centres (CCLIN) responsible for the inter-regional coordination of hospital infection control, prevention, surveillance and outbreak response.
The activities cover all fields of infectious diseases: AIDS and HIV epidemiology, STDs, viral hepatitis, vaccine preventable diseases, enteric and food-borne diseases, zoonosis, air-borne infections, nosocomial infections, antibiotic resistance and new or emerging infections. Surveillance, investigation and applied research activities are closely linked to health policy and decision, which are the responsibility of the health authorities (ministry of health at a national level, district public health offices at the district level...).
Training opportunities
The training site offers many opportunities in the field of epidemiology applied to infectious diseases control and prevention in France: outbreak investigation, designing and/or evaluation surveillance systems, surveillance data analysis, protocol design and applied research (planned study). Opportunities for being involved in international investigations are frequent. Collaboration to a project in environmental health is possible.The trainee will be expected to participate in at least one of each following activities: outbreak investigation (one at a district level, one at a regional or national level), analysis of surveillance data, evaluation of a surveillance system or to collaborate in a European project, and conduct a planned study. Writing scientific reports and articles is expected. Contribution to the training program of French public health residents assigned to the InVS is included in the usual duties of each EPIET trainee; it is also possible to contribute to the training in the French course in applied epidemiology, each fall. Interaction with the French training program in applied epidemiology, which is coordinated by the InVS, is also encouraged
Examples of work done by EPIET trainees include: Q fever, STEC, legionellosis, salmonellosis, thyphoid fever, hepatitis A, nosocomial hepatitis C, outbreaks investigations; evaluation of the French legionellosis and pneumococal infection surveillance by capture-recapture, case-control studies of sporadic listeriosis, leptospirosis, legionellosis, hepatitis C, a Franco Belgian case-control study on hantavirus, a field investigation of appendicitis in Guadeloupe, international assignment to Moldavia for a mumps outbreak, to Kenya for rift valley fever, to central America for leptospirosis, epidemiological assessment of the health status of Kosovar refugees in Albania, nutritional survey in Darfur, Niger, setting up and evaluating a surveillance system on West-Nile infection in the south of France, evaluating an hospital based surveillance of hepatitis C, of surveillance of haemolytic uremic syndrome, participation in the feasibility study of European listeriosis surveillance, modelling of a flu pandemic and of transmission of HCV.
Training supervision
General supervision is provided by JC Desenclos, Head of Department of infectious Diseases. Supervision of specific projects will be provided by senior epidemiologists in the Department.Language requirements
French and EnglishTraining history
Number of EPIET fellows trained at institute: 13 (1995-2007)Number of EPIET alumni working at the institute: Four
Available as a training site for cohort 14: Yes