Statens Serum Institut or SSI for short, is a Danish

Denmark

Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...

 sector research institute

Sector research institutes of Denmark

Sector research institutes of Denmark are state-owned independent research institutes under various Danish Government ministries, whose primary task is to do research in various fields...

 located on the island of Amager

Amager

Amager is a Danish island in the Øresund. The Danish capital, Copenhagen, is partly situated on Amager, which is connected to the much larger island of Zealand by five bridges.-History:...

 in Copenhagen

Copenhagen

Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...

. Its purpose is to combat and prevent infectious disease

Infectious disease

Infectious diseases, also known as communicable diseases, contagious diseases or transmissible diseases comprise clinically evident illness resulting from the infection, presence and growth of pathogenic biological agents in an individual host organism...

s, congenital disorder

Congenital disorder

A congenital disorder, or congenital disease, is a condition existing at birth and often before birth, or that develops during the first month of life , regardless of causation...

s, and threats from weapon of mass destruction. Founded in 1902 in the barracks

Barracks

Barracks are specialised buildings for permanent military accommodation; the word may apply to separate housing blocks or to complete complexes. Their main object is to separate soldiers from the civilian population and reinforce discipline, training and esprit de corps. They were sometimes called...

 of the Artillerivej road, it has now expanded to much more than its original size.

Administratively, the State Serum Institute sorts under the Danish Ministry of Health and Prevention under minister

Minister (government)

A minister is a politician who holds significant public office in a national or regional government. Senior ministers are members of the cabinet....

 Jakob Axel Nielsen

Jakob Axel Nielsen

Jakob Axel Nielsen is a Danish lawyer and politician representing the Conservative People's Party. He has been a member of the Folketing since the 2005 election and was Minister of Traffic and of Energy in the Cabinet of Anders Fogh Rasmussen II from 12 September 2007 to 23 November 2007, and...

. The president

President

A president is a leader of an organization, company, trade union, university, or country.Etymologically, a president is one who presides, who sits in leadership...

 and CEO

Chief executive officer

A chief executive officer , managing director , Executive Director for non-profit organizations, or chief executive is the highest-ranking corporate officer or administrator in charge of total management of an organization...

 of the institute has since 1998 been Niels Strandberg Pedersen. Apart from research into epidemiology

Epidemiology

Epidemiology is the study of health-event, health-characteristic, or health-determinant patterns in a population. It is the cornerstone method of public health research, and helps inform policy decisions and evidence-based medicine by identifying risk factors for disease and targets for preventive...

 and disease prevention, the institute also develops and produces vaccine

Vaccine

A vaccine is a biological preparation that improves immunity to a particular disease. A vaccine typically contains an agent that resembles a disease-causing microorganism, and is often made from weakened or killed forms of the microbe or its toxins...

s, and is an integral part of the Danish ABC-preparedness operation.

Apart from work in Denmark, Statens Serum Institut is also involved in health promotion and monitoring in the West Africa

West Africa

West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...

n country of Guinea-Bissau

Guinea-Bissau

The Republic of Guinea-Bissau is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Senegal to the north, and Guinea to the south and east, with the Atlantic Ocean to its west....

, as maintained by the Bandim Health Project

Bandim Health Project

The Bandim Health Project operates in one of the world’s poorest countries, Guinea-Bissau in West Africa. The core of the project is a demographic surveillance system which registers more than 90,000 people in 5 suburbs of the capital Bissau. Information on health, diseases, immunisations,...

.

Mainly doctors

Doctor of Medicine

Doctor of Medicine is a doctoral degree for physicians. The degree is granted by medical schools...

, pharmaconomist

Pharmaconomist

Pharmaconomist means expert in pharmaceuticals . Pharmaconomists are a pharmaceutical professional group in Denmark with a 3 year higher tertiary education...

s (expert in pharmaceuticals) and pharmacist

Pharmacist

Pharmacists are allied health professionals who practice in pharmacy, the field of health sciences focusing on safe and effective medication use...

s work at the National Serum Institute.