Childhood immunisation against S. pneumoniae is the most effective public health measure for preventing IPD both among vaccine recipients (direct effect), and among unimmunised populations (indirect ‘herd’ effect).
ECDC promotes the performance of external quality assessment (EQA) schemes, in which laboratories are sent simulated clinical specimens or bacterial isolates for testing by routine or reference laboratory methods. EQA schemes, or laboratory proficiency testing, provide information about the accuracy of different characterisation and typing methods as well as antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and the sensitivity of the methods in place to detect a certain pathogen or novel resistance patterns.
Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is an obligate human pathogen and an important cause of invasive bacterial infections in both children and adults, with the highest incidence among young children.
This toolkit aims to support infection prevention in schools, with a focus on gastrointestinal diseases, by assisting EU/EEA countries in their communication initiatives for disease prevention in school settings.
This toolkit aims to support infection prevention in schools, with a focus on gastrointestinal diseases, by assisting EU/EEA countries in their communication initiatives for disease prevention in school settings.
In 2014, 6 125 confirmed cases of shigellosis were reported in the EU/EEA (Table 1). The overall EU/EEA notification rate for confirmed shigellosis cases has slowly declined in the past five years.