In order to explore whether the current capacity for EU/EEA-wide molecular characterisation for surveillance of HBV and HCV is sufficient to be feasible and what gaps need to be addressed, a survey of EU/EEA Member States was conducted to assess their laboratory capacity and needs in relation to the molecular characterisation of hepatitis B and C.
This report of the European Food Safety Authority and the European Centre for Disease Prevention
and Control presents the results of the zoonoses monitoring activities carried out in 2016 in 37
European countries (28 Member States and nine non-MS).
An EQA scheme for antimicrobial susceptibility testing in Neisseria gonorrhoeae has been available to laboratories participating in ECDC’s European Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) surveillance network since 2010. This is the third EQA to be published on antimicrobial susceptibility testing in Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
According to test results from the annual European Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (Euro-GASP), resistance levels to the main antimicrobials used for treatment of gonorrhoea infection have seen an encouraging decrease since 2010.
The European Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme (Euro-GASP) follows a decentralised and centralised testing model. In 2015, 24 EU/EEA Member States participated in Euro-GASP, 17 through decentralised testing.
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.
An EQA scheme for antimicrobial susceptibility testing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae has been available to laboratories participating in ECDC’s European Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) surveillance network since 2010. This EQA scheme has so far shown high levels of inter-laboratory comparability in the presence of differing methodologies.