France

• CAPITAL: Paris
• POPULATION: 66.030.000
• ADDRESS: 12, rue du Val d’Osne 94 415 Saint-Maurice cedex
• WEB: Visit website

Institut de Veille Sanitaire (InVS)
The French Institute for Public Health Surveillance (Institut de veille sanitaire, InVS), a governmental institution reporting to the Ministry of Health, is responsible for surveillance and alert in all domains of public health. Created by Law 98–535 dated 1 July 1998, to reinforce health surveillance and the safety of products intended for human use, its mandates were enlarged by the Public Health Policy Act of 2004, in order to meet the new challenges highlighted by recent health and emerging risks.

InVS is responsible for:

• continuous monitoring of the population’s health status   InVS participates in the collection and analysis of population health data for epidemiological purposes, working with the public and private partners who make up the national public health network;
•  health surveillance   InVS gathers, analyses and updates information about health risks, their origin and trends; it prospectively detects risk factors that might modify or alter the health of the population or of some population subgroups, suddenly or insidiously; and it identifies and studies the most fragile or threatened population groups for each type of risk;
•  health alert   InVS has the duty to inform the Minister of Health as soon as possible of any threat to the health of the population or any population group, whatever the origin of this threat, and must recommend all appropriate measures or actions to prevent it or reduce its impact;
•  help manage health crises   InVS makes proposals to the health authorities for all appropriate measures or necessary actions.

As part of this mandate, InVS participates in European and international activities of France, especially in international public health networks of surveillance and alert