The electronic platform that monitors the occurrence of acute respiratory infections, available at gripenet.pt, is based on self-reported information from residents in Portugal. The platform had been inactive since 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic but recorded over 2,000 voluntary participants in 2019.
“The great advantage of Gripenet is that it complements traditional health surveillance systems,” said researcher Verónica Gomez from the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Dr. Ricardo Jorge (INSA). The platform includes mild cases of respiratory infections, such as influenza and COVID-19, from individuals who do not seek healthcare and are usually not part of the official statistics.
It also allows for the study of factors associated with vaccination uptake or the seeking of healthcare services.
Data collected by Gripenet between 2011 and 2017 indicates that around 70% of people with flu symptoms or signs of respiratory infection do not use healthcare services.
“This indicates that the vast majority of people do not seek healthcare when they have the flu. It is a large portion of people,” providing essential information to understand how respiratory infections circulate in the community and how the population reacts, whether by seeing a doctor, contacting SNS 24, or staying at home.
The researcher explained that the platform experienced a “pause” starting in 2020, coinciding with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, as all human and other resources had to be reallocated to combat the pandemic, especially at the Instituto Nacional de Saúde Ricardo Jorge.
“This period allowed for a complete overhaul of the platform,” stated the researcher from the Department of Epidemiology, “enabling the inclusion of other respiratory infections besides influenza, which was the main focus of Gripenet.”
It also standardized the methodology with partners from the European consortium Influenza Net, providing a European perspective on respiratory infections and improving the platform.
According to Verónica Gomez, online registration is simple, with each participant receiving a code to ensure researchers do not have access to their identification.
“Parents or legal guardians can fill out questionnaires regarding their minor children,” she explained.
Each participant registers on the electronic platform, completes a characterization questionnaire, and receives a brief weekly questionnaire to report any respiratory symptoms during the week.
This questionnaire takes about three minutes to complete if symptoms are present and only a few seconds if they are absent.
The results are presented weekly on the platform and are set to complement information gathered through the classic influenza and other respiratory virus surveillance systems.
Gripenet was created by the Instituto Gulbenkian Ciência in 2004, inspired by a Dutch system initiated in 2003.
In 2015, it was transferred to the INSA, which coordinates influenza and other respiratory virus surveillance in Portugal.
