Viral hepatitis is an infection that causes inflammation of the liver. It can be caused by different viruses, including hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV). Both HBV and HCV can cause acute and chronic infections and are leading causes of liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma.
This report of the European Food Safety Authority and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control presents the results of zoonoses monitoring and surveillance activities carried out in 2021 in 27 MSs, the United Kingdom (Northern Ireland) and nine non-MSs.
The laboratories participating in the QA21 EQA scheme for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of N. gonorrhoeae showed good levels of competency and capability in recovering and testing strains of unknown phenotype.
You may already know about PrEP - the pill one takes to reduce the risk of acquiring HIV. But did you know there is also PEP - the post-exposure prophylaxis - that is used after one may have been exposed to the HIV virus.
This report is the latest in a series published jointly by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the WHO Regional Office for Europe that has been reporting data on HIV and AIDS in the WHO European Region and in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA) since 2007.
By 2021, 48 of 55 countries in Europe and Central Asia provided data on at least one stage of the continuum of HIV care (compared to 40 countries in 2018). A total of 47 countries were able to provide data for at least two consecutive stages of the continuum (compared to 45 in 2020) and 40 countries provided data on all four stages.
The purpose of this review was to identify and synthesise the existing evidence on effectiveness of interventions targeting people who inject drugs at two stages of the care cascade: linkage to care and adherence to treatment of HIV, hepatitis B/C and TB.