Current and future burden of communicable diseases in the European Union and EEA/EFTA countries – Methodology protocol

ECDC’s surveillance data follow trends in time and indicate health problems resulting from particular diseases, but are subject to under-reporting and do not account for disease severity. To increase insight into the impact of communicable diseases on population health in Europe and to support health policy-making, ECDC is developing a methodology for measuring the burden of communicable diseases in the European Union Member States and European Economic Area (EEA)/European Free Trade Association (EFTA) countries. This report, which represents the initial output from the project, summarises choices concerning the methodology of future disease burden estimates based on literature and data reviews and the results of workshops/expert meetings.