A team of multidisciplinary experts, including ECDC staff and an expert from Norway, visited Romania between 4 and 7 July to discuss aspects related to the detection, surveillance, prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs), together with staff at the Ministry of Health, the National Institute for Public Health and other Romanian stakeholders. This was an exploratory visit following a request for support made by the Romanian Minister of Health to tackle the challenges that the country was currently facing in this area.
Although clinical trials and other studies have demonstrated the efficacy and effectiveness of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV and existing guidelines have recommended making PrEP available within combination HIV prevention packages, there is not yet clear consensus in Europe with regard to whether and how to implement PrEP.
This joint meeting of the networks on Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) and HIV offered a platform for expert discussion among nominated ECDC contact points for STI and HIV on 8-9 March. On 10-11 March 2016, the European network for HIV/AIDS Surveillance brought together the nominated HIV/AIDS surveillance contact and focal points of the 53 countries of the WHO European Region.
The main objective of this course was to strengthen capacity in EU Member States for control of healthcare-associated infections due to multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) in acute health care settings and to promote the broadest possible implementation of appropriate methods.
Emerging diseases and outbreak investigations, whole genome sequencing-based surveillance and public health risks related to animal and food imports to the EU/EEA were some of the topics under discussion during the Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses Network meeting.