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.
Online database of the ECDC HAI-Net point prevalence survey (PPS) of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial use in acute care hospitals in Europe.
In 2011–2012, 29 EU/EEA Member States and Croatia participated in the first EU-wide, ECDC-coordinated point prevalence survey of healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial use in acute care hospitals.
This report gives an overview of the current status of STI and HIV among men who have sex with men (MSM) in EU/EEA countries. It reviews HIV and STI prevention interventions targeted at MSM, and the evaluations of those interventions.
The results of this external quality assurance distribution have shown that European Haemophilus reference laboratories differ in the level of characterisation of strains, ranging from simple speciation to full identification and typing. All but two laboratories routinely phenotypically serotype isolates. Fifteen laboratories (52%) performed PCR-based capsular genotyping, 23 laboratories (79%) reported antimicrobial susceptibility testing results.
This ECDC surveillance report on sexually transmitted infections (STI) in Europe covers 20 years of surveillance data collection and analyses the basic trends and epidemiological features of the five STI under EU surveillance: syphilis, congenital syphilis, gonorrhoea, chlamydia and lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV).
The protocol provides a standardised methodology to Member States and hospitals in response to article II.8.c of Council Recommendation 2009/C 151/01 of 9 June 2009 on patient safety, including the prevention and control of healthcare-associated infections. It also integrates the main variables of the ESAC hospital PPS protocol, thereby providing support to Council Recommendation 2002/77/EC of 15 November 2001 on the prudent use of antimicrobial agents in human medicine.