The Programme for European Public Health Microbiology Training (EUPHEM) started in 2008 as a pilot two-year fellowship programme with two fellows in the first cohort. Based on the positive experience after the first two years the programme continued and expanded the number of countries and public health laboratories involved. In 2013, while 4 fellows are graduating, the new cohort starts the 2 year fellowship in nine different EUPHEM training sites.
An international consensus study on standardisation of a widely developed molecular subtyping method for Salmonella Typhimurium, multiple loci variable-number tandem repeat analysis (MLVA), was published by Nadon et al. in Eurosurveillance on 29 August 2013
Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) are an emerging threat to healthcare. Beside the carbapenems – a last-line class of antibiotics – CPE are resistant to most other antibiotics, leaving few options for the treatment of infected patients. In an effort to assess the nature and scale of CPE spread in Europe, a group of European experts is implementing the European Survey on Carbapenemase-Producing Enterobacteriaceae (EuSCAPE).
The case definition and case finding algorithm have been prepared for surveillance purposes only and they will be adjusted as the current avian influenza A(H7N9) situation develops.
On 13 November 2012, the Health Protection Agency published the whole genome sequence data from the second case of respiratory disease associated with a novel coronavirus who was hospitalised in England.
Influenza pandemics occur when new influenza viruses appear that transmit efficiently between humans and to which a substantial proportion of the population is susceptible
A new cohort of fellows started the European Programme for Public Health Microbiology Training (EUPHEM) fellowships. ECDC is releasing a new website dedicated to EUPHEM.
At a special joint session combining experts from the National Microbiology Focal Points and ECDC's Advisory Forum, ECDC Director, Dr. Marc Sprenger, set out his vision for the agency’s role in strengthening public health microbiology across Europe: By 2016, ECDC will foster the development and facilitate the operation of an efficient public health microbiology system capable of providing timely and reliable information for infectious disease prevention and control at Member State and EU levels