History of the unit

• Between 1981 and 1984 the then Public Health Laboratory Service Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre (PHLS-CDSC) and the British Paediatric Association (BPA) (predecessor to the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health) undertook passive surveillance of Reye's Syndrome, Haemolytic Uraemic Syndrome, Haemorrhagic Shock Encephalopathy Syndrome and Kawasaki Disease.

• Paediatricians voluntarily reported cases if seen

• The aim was to assemble sufficient cases to study the epidemiological trends od the conditions

• Such was the success of the system in 1984-04 along with the Institute of Child Health Department of Epidemiology and Biostatisitcs in 1984-85 a BPA/PHLS-CDSC steering group was set up in 1985

• From this the BPSU active surveillance system evolved in 1986 because:

  • it was felt that an active method of case reporting would achieve the high levels of case ascertainment necessary for studies of rare disorders

  • there was an increasing number of applications to the then BPA from individual research workers who wished to circulate paediatricians with requests to report a range of conditions to various bases throughout the country.

• In June 1986 the first mailing to paediatricians began.

• In 1992 the first meeting to develop such systems in Germany and the Netherlands occurred.

• In 1998 the International Network of Paediatric Surveillance Units was launched.

• In 2003 the Sir Peter Tizard bursary was introduced

Further information

• History talk (powerpoint file 19.64MB)
• History Poster (PDF file 101KB)