C.D.C. (Europe)

The vacancy notice for the next Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has now been published in the EU Official Journal, marking the beginning of the recruitment process for the most senior role in the Centre.

Charlotte Salgaard Nielsen, EPIET fellow, went on a GOARN deployment to support the Greater Horn of Africa drought and food insecurity emergency response. This is her postcard from the field.

This month, ECDC organises an online training module on One Health and vector-borne diseases for the Mediterranean and Black Sea Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (MediPIET). It takes place from 2–4 May and 15–17 May 2023 and focuses on One Health approaches to field epidemiology in the MediPIET partner countries.

EU/EEA countries are reporting an increased number of Escherichia coli (E. coli) isolates carrying the blaNDM-5 gene that makes them resistant to carbapenems, antibiotics that are often used as last resort to treat serious E. coli infections.

This weekly report provides an overview of the epidemiological situation of the COVID-19 pandemic and COVID-19 vaccine rollout by country. 

On 9 May, the European Union celebrates Europe Day, a moment to commemorate the Schuman Declaration in 1950.

We talked to her ahead of the seven-day MediPIET module on One Health and vector-borne diseases organised by ECDC under the EU Initiative on Health Security.

World Hand Hygiene Day is marked every year on 5 May, to raise awareness of the importance of handwashing to prevent the spread of infections.

Between 2018 and 2020, nearly 20 000 surgical site infections (SSIs) were reported from a total of over 1.2 million surgical procedures in 13 EU/EEA countries participating in ECDC-coordinated SSI surveillance. Over 2 500 hospitals are part of this surveillance network.

On this episode, we discuss the importance of handwashing to prevent catching or spreading infectious diseases in public spaces and in healthcare settings

ECDC presents lessons learned from the response of Europe’s public health sector to the pandemic and highlights follow up actions addressing relevant issues which could improve Europe’s pandemic preparedness.

At the start of European Immunization Week, the ECDC report “Poliomyelitis situation update” reveals that between 2012 and 2021, approximately 2.4 million children in the EU/EEA may have not received three doses of polio-containing vaccines on time. Additionally, the newly published ECDC “Measles Annual Epidemiological Report 2022” highlights the risks when having pockets of an under-vaccinated population or groups not immunised at all.

European Immunization Week (EIW) is marked across Europe every year in the final week of April, to raise awareness of the importance of immunisation for the general health and well-being of the European and wider population.

The report Public health considerations for mpox in EU/EEA countries, released today by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), sets out a number of considerations for public health authorities in areas such as vaccination, surveillance, testing, contact tracing and risk communication.

The second “Surveillance of antimicrobial resistance in Europe” report, published jointly by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and WHO/Europe on 14 April 2023, shows high percentages of resistance to last-line antibiotics, such as carbapenems, in several countries of the WHO European Region. The report features data from 2021.

We talked to Dr Flavia Riccardo after ECDC’s three-day workshop on how to strengthen preparedness and response to West Nile Virus (WNV) infections.

This report provides an overview of the total number of cases of mpox (monkeypox) reported to ECDC and the WHO Regional Office for Europe through IHR/EWRS mechanisms .

To decrease the impact of COVID-19, and related hospitalisations and mortality, countries should plan for a continued roll-out of COVID vaccines in 2023.

The annual European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology (ESCAIDE) is taking place in Barcelona and online from 22-24 November 2023.

ECDC has published the latest long-term surveillance framework that identifies concrete objectives, actions, targets and milestones to be achieved in surveillance of infectious diseases in the EU/EEA by 2027.