C.D.C. (Europe)

Marking World Hepatitis Day, data from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) reveal a significant public health challenge. An estimated five million people in the European Union and European Economic area (EU/EEA) are living with chronic hepatitis B or C – infections that are leading causes of liver disease and cancer – with the majority of people unaware they are infected.

With the arrival of the summer and increases in sea surface temperatures, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is highlighting the seasonal risk posed by Vibrio bacteria.

Diphtheria remains a public health concern in Europe, prompting ECDC to recommend targeted measures to protect vulnerable populations.

The Mediterranean and Black Sea Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (MediPIET) Alumni Network – MediAN – held a two-day event at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) headquarters in Stockholm, Sweden.

As Europe enters this year’s mosquito season, ECDC has launched a new series of weekly surveillance updates to help public health authorities monitor mosquito-borne diseases in a timely way, covering chikungunya, dengue, Zika, and West Nile viruses.

On 23–24 June 2025, ECDC hosted the first joint partner meeting between the EU Health Task Force (EUHTF) and representatives of the planned rescEU Emergency Medical Team (EMT) Public Health Specialised Care Team (SCT) at its premises in Stockholm, Sweden.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), in partnership with the European AIDS Clinical Society (EACS), has published two new sets of European standards for HIV prevention and care. These two modules, focusing on HIV testing and pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), are the first to be released in a series designed to standardise and improve the quality of HIV services across Europe.

From 16 to 19 June 2025, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) hosted a regional workshop in Stockholm on “Methods and Tools for Evidence-Based Public Health (EBPH),” as part of the EU Initiative on Health Security.

ECDC has issued a Rapid Risk Assessment in response to a multi-country outbreak of hepatitis A in the EU/EEA.

ECDC is closely monitoring increasing SARS-CoV-2 activity in the EU/EEA, and the emergence of the recently identified Omicron-descendant variant NB.1.8.1 has been associated with a rise in infections in some countries in Asia, including China, Hong Kong and Singapore.

Increases in infections due to SARS-CoV-2, associated with an increase in detections of the NB.1.8.1 variant, have been observed in some countries in Asia (including China, Hong Kong, Singapore) in recent weeks. ECDC and WHO have classified NB.1.8.1 as a variant under monitoring (VUM).

From 9 to 13 June 2025, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) delivered the Rapid Risk Assessment and Survey Methods module in Athens, Greece, to fellows from the EPIET, EUPHEM, and PAE programmes. In addition, the module was offered to fellows and external participants of the MediPIET programme.

Between 10–12 June 2025, 24 representatives from the Eastern Partnership countries, from Armenia, Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine, gathered in Stockholm and online for a three-day workshop hosted by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), focused on simulation exercises (SimExes) and after-action reviews (AARs).

Nadejda Morarescu, as a MediPIET fellow, led projects on AMR surveillance and stewardship, deepening her expertise and commitment to public health.

Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) and Listeria infections in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) reached their highest levels in 2023 since the start of EU-wide surveillance in 2007, according to the latest annual epidemiological reports issued today by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

During 2022, several European countries observed an unusual spike in reported diphtheria cases that mainly affected migrants who had recently arrived in Europe. Recent data from 2025 indicate that at least one of the bacterial strains detected in the 2022 outbreak is also associated with newly reported cases in the region, affecting additional vulnerable groups including people experiencing homelessness.

On 2 June 2025, ECDC welcomed a delegation from the Gulf Health Council and the Gulf Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC).

Between 20 and 22 May 2025, a regional workshop was held in Cairo, Egypt, on the risk-ranking of epidemic-prone diseases.

In 2024-2025, South Sudan experienced its largest ever recorded outbreak of cholera. On 18 December 2024, Ebba Rosendal, Instituto Nacional de Saúde Doutor Ricardo Jorge (INSA), Lisbon, Portugal, and Sebastian von Schreeb, Direção-Geral da Saúde (DGS), Lisbon, Portugal, were deployed to Juba, the capital of South Sudan, through the WHO Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN).

On 28 May 2025, the European Commission issued a new call for laboratories in EU Member States and EEA countries to submit applications to be designated as an EU reference laboratory (EURL) for public health in the field of respiratory viruses.