Surveillance of Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI)
Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC).
Commenced in July 2021 in one SARI hospital site, St Vincent’s University Hospital.
1. Monitor SARI incidence trends
2. Describe intensity of activity and severity of SARI infections
3. To identify and monitor groups at risk of severe disease
4. To assess the SARI burden of disease
5. To assess and monitor vaccine effectiveness
6. To develop recommendations for SARI surveillance.
In scope: SARI surveillance monitors SARI cases admitted through the Emergency Department, based on clinical symptoms. Only one SARI hospital site was included at the time of publication.
Out of scope: Patients that develop SARI during their admission, or are admitted through alternate routes, are not included in the surveillance system. Patients under 14 years of age were not included in the current SARI hospital site.
Limited to one acute hospital – St Vincent’s University Hospital, Dublin, which has a catchment population of 304,146 (those aged 14 years and older) according to 2021 population projection.
Surveillance began in July 2021; data are analysed on a weekly ongoing basis.
SARI surveillance in Ireland is a syndromic sentinel hospital surveillance project, which is part of a wider European network of SARI hospitals, E-SARI-NET. There is currently only one SARI sentinel hospital site in Ireland, collecting case-based data. SARI cases are identified from new admissions through the Emergency Department, based on clinical symptoms. SARI patients are tested for SARS-CoV-2, influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Epidemiological reports are produced by HPSC on a weekly basis on the incidence of persons hospitalised with SARI; epidemiological, clinical and virological data are described, including influenza and COVID-19 vaccination status and outcome.
HPSC, NVRL, SVUH, HSE, Department of Health, Departments of Public Health, European Centre for Disease Control (ECDC), World Health Organisation (WHO) and other stakeholders.
- Patient demographics (age, gender, address, ethnicity, occupation)
- Symptoms
- Pre-existing conditions
- Laboratory investigations
- Antiviral usage
- Outcomes
- Vaccination status
Data dictionary is not available online.
IHI is recorded, where available.
Sex, age, address, ethnicity, and occupation are collected.
Information is extracted from medical charts or records by research nurses, and from laboratory information systems by an epidemiologist.
Data are extracted from the hospital SARI database to an excel file, and sent to HPSC on a weekly basis. Data are imported into the HPSC SARI database.
The HSE Integrated Information Service (IIS) match SARI patients to COVID-19 vaccine data (from the National COVID-19 vaccination system) on a weekly basis. These data are imported into the HPSC SARI database.
Definition of SARI as per the ECDC case definition.
ECDC SARI definition: A hospitalised (for at least 24 hours) person with acute respiratory infection, with at least one of the following symptoms: cough, fever, shortness of breath OR sudden onset of anosmia, ageusia or dysgeusia with onset of symptoms within 14 days prior to hospital admission.
No coding is used.
The average number of SARI cases reported each week is 11 (range 2 to 29).
SARI surveillance reports are distributed to stakeholders weekly. The report is not currently available online.
Data requests can be submitted via hpsc@hse.ie and will be assessed on a case-by-case basis.
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