In May 2012 a collection of five strains of Haemophilus spp was sent to 28 participating reference laboratories in the IBD-labnet surveillance network for quality assurance testing. The laboratories were asked to characterise the five strains by performing standard laboratory protocols for the methods usually used by the laboratory for: species identification, biotyping and serotyping by serological methods and/or PCR.
The results of this EQA are published in the this report.
This report presents the results from the 2011 gonococcal antimicrobial susceptibility surveillance programme (Euro-GASP) and a summary of the second distribution from the 2011 external quality assurance (EQA) scheme.
In 2011, a pilot study was undertaken to assess the public health benefit of molecular surveillance for gonorrhoea in 21 EU/EEA countries. A total of 1 066 isolates collected under the 2010 European gonococcal antimicrobial surveillance programme were typed and 406 sequence types identified, with considerable diversity among countries.
In 2010, 21 EU/EEA Member States participated in the European Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (Euro-GASP), testing a total of 1766 isolates.
Since 2009, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has coordinated the enhanced surveillance of sexually transmitted infections in Europe.