The Institute of Public Health of Serbia was established in 1919 as the Ministerial Commission for Epidemiology organized by the Ministry of Health to perform communicable disease surveillance. Dr. Milan Jovanovic Batut was the first Head of the Commission. In 1945, after World War II, the Federal Institute of Hygiene, the Institute of Epidemiology, and the Institute of Bacteriology and Epidemiology of the Republic of Serbia were established under the Central Institute of Hygiene. In 2006, the institute became the Institute of Public Health of Serbia “Dr. Milan Jovanovic Batut”.

The institute has 246 employees whose main tasks are to:

• Collect data on health and utilization of health services, maintain databases of basic resources of the healthcare system, generate population survey data, and produce health information for the effective health reporting to authorities and public
• Conduct health promotion activities centered on community health, health education, and health care of socially vulnerable groups
• Control and prevent communicable and non-communicable diseases and improve emergency preparedness
• Monitor the influence of environmental risk factors on the health of the population, control food and drinking water safety, conduct sanitary surveillance, and control compliance with hygienic standards
• Perform public health microbiology and clinical microbiology