Imported fever service (IFS)

The imported fever service (IFS) provides:

  • 24-hour, 7-day a week telephone access to expert clinical and microbiological advice to support management of febrile patients, infection control and public health interventions
  • 24 hour on-call molecular diagnostic service for viral haemorrhagic fevers and certain key differential diagnoses eg malaria, dengue
  • next working day diagnostic service for a range of other acute imported fevers such as chikungunya and rickettsias
  • panels of diagnostic tests designed for 10 world regions, with the aim of delivering a positive diagnosis rather than ruling out single infections

The IFS is run by Public Health England (PHE) in partnership with:

  • the Hospital for Tropical Diseases (HTD), London.
  • the Tropical and Infectious Diseases Unit (TIDU), Liverpool

Expert advice is provided by PHE consultant microbiologists and virologists and by infectious disease physicians from PHE and our NHS partner organisations.

Diagnostic tests are carried out by the rare and imported pathogens laboratory (RIPL) at PHE. The IFS has close links to PHE Health Protection Services.