The European Surveillance System (TESSy)

The European Surveillance System (TESSy) is a highly flexible metadata-driven system for collection, validation, cleaning, analysis and dissemination of data. Its key aim is to provide the basis for high quality data analysis and interpretation to provide evidence for public health action. All EU Member States (27) and EEA countries (3) report data on communicable diseases to the system. TESSy was launched in 2008 and, apart from routine surveillance, it has incorporated all  the data collection systems that were in place for the Dedicated Surveillance Network (DSN) projects and now provides experts with a one-stop-shop for EU surveillance data. Prior to May 2005 when ECDC was established, there were 17 DSNs that collected data on a variety of diseases but also using different file specifications.