Dr Darina O’Flanagan retired as Director of the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) on May 6th. Darina was appointed Director in November 1998 of the predecessor of the HPSC, the NDSU (National Disease Surveillance Unit) and built up this small infectious disease surveillance unit into a thriving and important national infectious disease institute, internationally respected as an important public health institution and national centre of excellence.
Through her tireless work, Dr O’Flanagan has ensured an enduring impact upon Public Health, infectious disease surveillance and the Irish health service. Under her leadership, HPSC has come to be regarded nationally and internationally as a highly respected national public health institution.
A graduate of Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin, Darina worked for over 30 years in the field of public health medicine. Before taking the position as the first Director of HPSC in 1998, she worked in Powys Health Authority, Wales as a Consultant in Communicable Disease Control and later returned to Dublin to a post in the Eastern Health Board as a one of the first cohorts of Specialists in Public Health Medicine.
The Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC), formerly known as the National Disease Surveillance Unit and the National Disease Surveillance Centre (NDSC), was established in 1998 in Sir Patrick Dun’s Hospital with a staff of three. Seventeen years, a number of name-changes and geographical moves later HPSC now has a staff of 42.
The effectiveness of HPSC’s work depends upon close working relationships with its major stakeholders. Darina built up close working relationships with the staff of the Departments of Public Health around the country. In addition, her emphasis on interdisciplinary working strengthened the links with infectious disease and microbiology clinicians and professionals. In addition, she placed great emphasis on close working relationships with the Department of Health and other Government Departments, other national stakeholders such as Food Safety Authority Ireland and safefood. Her close international relations mean she and HPSC came to be highly regarded internationally.
Never happier than dealing with major emergencies, Darina enjoyed responding to and relished national and international incidents such as the Clostridium noyvi cluster in injecting drug users in 2000, the dramatic emergence of a totally new disease, Severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in 2003, the international outbreak of Salmonella Agona in 2008, the sudden appearance of a new Pandemic Influenza in 2009, the international outbreak of Ebola in 2014 and the current wave of Zika virus disease.
Darina’s first love however, was vaccine preventable disease; she was keenly aware of the impact of immunisation on reducing the huge burden of morbidity and mortality once borne by this country. As a result she valued her work with NIAC very highly. Under the guidance of Dr O’Flanagan, HPSC works ever more closely with healthcare professionals, national committees, Government departments, and European and International agencies in coordinating rapid and decisive responses to emerging threats and public health emergencies.
Justly proud of CIDR, Darina guided the development of CIDR (the national Computerised Infectious Disease Reporting information system) which was developed within HPSC in conjunction with the former health boards, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland, the Food Safety Promotion Board and the Department of Health, to manage the surveillance and control of infectious diseases and antimicrobial resistance in Ireland. It also monitors organisms' ability to resist antibiotic drugs. CIDR has become an internationally acclaimed infectious disease capture system. .
Dr O’Flanagan has served on many national and European committees including the Board of FSAI, the Advisory Forum of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, the RCPI National Immunisation Advisory Committee, the Department of Health CJD Advisory Committee to name but a few.
A prolific author, Darina has published in the areas of immunisation, influenza, vaccine preventable diseases and remains in keen demand as a reviewer.
Darina always laid great store on the necessity for the highest quality of training in HPSC, and she worked hard to ensure that HPSC was recognised as a training site, for the Faculty of Public Health Medicine in Ireland (FPHMI) and EPIET (European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training). Darina has been a long term supporter of EPIET and, to date HPSC has benefited from hosting 10 fellows from six different European countries and also trained two HPSC staff members in the EPIET Member State programme. A sought after Faculty of Public Health Medicine training site, HPSC has hosted many Specialist Registrars in Public Health Medicine. Finally Darina was a trusted voice for the public, never afraid to defend Public Health, frequently appearing before the public to reassure and clarify.
The staff of HPSC wish Darina and her husband Cliff the very best for the future.
