Réseau Sentinelles

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The réseau Sentinelles, litt. "Sentinels network", is a French network of volunteer general practitioners that deals with the epidemic survey of the French territory. The physicians members of this network are called "médecins sentinelles" i.e. "sentinel physicians".

This network was created in november 1984, and helps the Institut de veille sanitaire (InVS, "institute for sanitary survey"). It deals with principaly with infectious diseases that are easily — influenza, acute diarrhea (amongst which gastroenteritis), measles, mumps, chickenpox (and herpes zoster), male urethritis and A, B and C hepatitis — as well as asthma, suicide attempts and hospitalisation prescribed by the general practitionners.

The data, which are anonymous, are sent by the volunteer physicians and feed a database (geographic information system). This allows a fast detection of a starting epidemy (anomalous high number of acses) and help the studies (research about the causes).

The network is made of 1 200 physicians (2 per 100 000 inhabitants) on the whole metropole.

The network releases a weekly bulletin, Sentiweb Hebdo, which is sent to the major media, and a yearly study.

The réseau Santinelles works along with the World Health Organization (WHO) for the electronic survey of diseases.