ECDC has organised the “Influenza Workshop Week” to support Member States and the European Commission in implementing the 2009 EU Council Recommendation on Seasonal Influenza Immunisation.
The seminar addressed issues such as the human cost of zoonoses, trends in food-borne diseases, challenges and lessons learnt from epidemiological investigations on the 2011 E.coli outbreak and salmonella controls.
In a joint seminar by Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs (DG SANCO), European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and ECDC at the European Parliament, Marc Sprenger highlighted the decrease of Salmonella infections in EU.
The 2011 seasonal influenza immunisation campaigns have started across Europe. As in previous years ECDC is marking the start of the 2011-12 surveillance season in Week 40 with the publication of regular weekly updates of the main epidemiological and virological developments in the Weekly Influenza Surveillance Overview (WISO).
Strengthening public health capacities in a diverse European setting has become a major issue in an enlarged European Union. Migration within the Member States and incoming migrants from neighbouring countries is influencing national and regional public health policies. The importance of strengthening and building up new public health capacities in a time of increased migration is going to be discussed at the workshop organised by the ECDC at the 14th European Health Forum Gastein (EHFG).
On 3 October 2011 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and representatives of the European Vaccine Manufacturers met at ECDC in Stockholm for a regular scheduled meeting about the use of vaccines for prevention of seasonal and pandemic influenza. ECDC Director Marc Sprenger opened the meeting and ECDC influenza experts held different presentations, such as burden of influenza disease in the EU, risk groups for severe influenza disease, personal protective measures, pandemic influenza preparedness, seasonal influenza vaccines, communication.
The Declarations of Interest for ECDC Influenza Staff and the ECDC Director are available here under ECDC Transparency.
At his annual hearing with the European Parliament’s Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, ECDC Director Marc Sprenger described the resurgence of measles in the EU as “one of the major events of this new decade”.
The European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) is organising the 24th ESICM LIVES Annual Congress in Berlin on 1-5 October 2011. This congress is one of the major meetings, gathering numerous well-known international experts in the field of intensive care medicine.
Location:Berlin
Organized by:European Society of Intensive Care Medicine
In an editorial in the scientific journal Eurosurveillance, ECDC noted that, based on numerous studies, paediatricians, family practitioners and nurses form the backbone of each national immunisation programme in the EU.
Clostridium difficile infection is the leading cause of healthcare-associated diarrhoea in the developed world and represents a major financial burden for European healthcare systems.