Voluntary surveillance

Data on a range of organisms, including bacteria detected in blood samples, are collected via the HPA's voluntary surveillance scheme, mainly using electronic reporting to LabBase.  Records of bacteria received by this system may include patient details such as age and sex, details of detection methods used, and some antibiotic susceptibility results. Entry of data onto this system in laboratories is continuous.

Bacteraemia reports: England and Wales, 1990 - 2004

For more voluntary surveillance data please refer to the CDR Weekly articles listed on the right, or refer to the 'Epidemiological data' sections of the organism-specific pages listed under 'Topics A-Z'.

The HPA is also involved in theBritish Society for Antimicrobial Chemotherapy (BSAC) Resistance Surveillance Project  andThe European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (EARSS) bacteraemia surveillance projects.