The European Commission funded project REACT (Response to Emerging infectious diseases: Assessment and development of Core capacities and Tools) aims to improve and harmonise the response to public health threats throughout the European Union (EU) [9] . As part of this, a conceptual framework for a Europe-wide sentinel monitoring system for infectious diseases in HCWs is being developed. A number of studies have examined syndromic surveillance systems in hospital settings for timely recognition of nosocomial outbreaks in HCWs with positive results [5, 10, 11] . This study aims to explore the views and attitudes of European HCWs towards such surveillance systems, monitoring absence and symptom reports for the early detection of unusual illness and clusters of cases in previously healthy HCWs.