In January 2008, a panel of ECDC experts produced the Guidance for the introduction of HPV vaccines in EU countries. Since then, the European Union has come a long way: most countries have implemented national vaccination programmes for adolescent girls and a significant number have also introduced catch-up programmes for young women.
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.
This update of ECDC pandemic risk assessment for Europe is based on data and analyses available in early November 2009. It draws on the experience in European countries, North America and the Southern Hemisphere’s temperate countries, which have already passed through a winter with the new virus.
On 3 August 2015, Spain notified a case of chikungunya virus infection in a resident of the city of Gandía in the autonomous community of Valencia. On 11 September 2015, authorities in Spain acknowledged that the case was a false positive. This rapid risk assessment reviews the later discarded chikungunya case reported from Spain without travel history to endemic areas and the risk of possible onwards transmission.
This assessment considers the risk to human health posed by SARS-CoV-2 mink related variants. It is based on information available to ECDC at the time of publication and, unless otherwise stated, the assessment of risk refers to the risk that existed at the time of writing.
The Director’s Annual report provides an overview of the Centre’s accomplishments for 2018 and a summary of the Centre’s financial and administrative operations.
On 11 September, authorities in Valencia,Spain acknowledged that the case of Chikungunya reported 3 August 2015 is a false positive. Laboratory investigation conducted by the National Reference laboratory in Madrid did not confirm the initial results.