3rd Meeting of the Hepatitis B and C Network
On the third meeting of the Hepatitis B and C Network national focal points and experts discussed the enhanced surveillance programme for hepatitis B and C across Europe and explored ways of improving it.
Sessions focused on countries‘ experiences, emerging trends, prevalence studies and surveillance. It was also an opportunity to review ECDC’s work and determine future priorities for the surveillance, prevention and control of these two diseases.
Participants included nominated contact/focal points of the 31 EU/EEA countries, experts from ECDC and WHO Regional Office for Europe, the European Commission, the Viral Hepatitis Prevention Board (VHPB), the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA), WHO headquarters, European Association for the Study of the Liver (EASL), the European Liver Patients Association (ELPA) and representatives from the civil society.
Background
The first meeting of the European network for hepatitis B and C took place in Stockholm in March 2011. From 2011 onwards, ECDC implemented enhanced surveillance for hepatitis B and C across EU/EEA countries with the collection of case-based notification data using revised case definitions and an extended set of disease-specific variables.
