On 28 April 2008, the European Commission updated a series of legislative texts intended to strengthen the control of communicable diseases in Europe. The first of these texts concerns the EU Early Warning and Response System - that is the European Union alert system for communicable diseases. Here you can read the original decision (2000/57/EC) and amendment.

The conference is aimed to bring together professionals involved in applied infectious disease epidemiology. The schedule of the conference involves a wide range of topics related to the area of applied public health research, outbreak investigations and evaluation of public health surveillance, as well as other areas in applied epidemiology or public health practice in which results are linked to public health action.

 

For more information read the website of the conference.

 

15.04.08

 

Read more about this congress on its website. English is the official language of the congress. The early registration deadline is May 31, 2008.

 

14.04.08

 

 

 

 

Read more on the website of the conference. English is the official language of the conference. The deadline for abstract submission is May 15. The early registration deadline is June 16, 2008.

 

14.04.08

 

 

The target of the conference is to strengthen networking and partnership on HIV/AIDS and related issues among the new European Union members, old members and countries outside EU, and to make effort in helping to adopt the EU policy and way of working in the newcomers.

 

The working language of the conference is English. However, translation will be done into Lithuanian and Russian languages. Read more on the website of the conference.

 

14.04.08

The report issued by the World Health Organization (WHO) presents findings from the largest survey to date on drug resistant  tuberculosis (TB).

 

The report, "Anti-tuberculosis drug resistance in the world", is based on data collected between 2002 and 2006 on 90 000 TB patients in 81 countries. It has found that extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB), a virtually untreatable form of the respiratory disease, has been recorded in 45 countries.

On the website of Emerging Infectious Diseases Journal you can find abstracts from the International Conference on Emerging Infectious Disease, held in Atlanta, USA, 16-19 March 2008.

 

11.04.08

The EpiNorth project team welcomes two new colleagues!

 

Inga Velicko from Latvia (to the right) has joined us as EpiNorth Project Manager since April 2008. She has work experience as epidemiologist at the Swedish Institute of Infectious Disease Control and the State Public Health Agency in Latvia. Inga Velicko has been involved in the EpiNorth collaboration through facilitating EpiTrain courses since 2006. She has public health background and has also completed the European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET).

 

Natalia Andronova from Russia (to the left) is currently a student of the University of Oslo studying health management and economics. She will work part-time for the EpiNorth project.

 

10.04.08 

In 2006 the European Union countries reported 81 600 cases of tuberculosis, and Kazakhstan, Romania, the Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan accounted for 72% of the tuberculosis burden in the region, reported WHO’s Regional Office for Europe. The Russian Federation is 11th among the 22 countries in the world with the highest burden of tuberculosis.

 

In collaboration with partners, WHO/Europe held the WHO European Ministerial Forum “All against tuberculosis” in Berlin, Germany in October 2007. The participants endorsed WHO/Europe’s “Plan to Stop TB in 18 High-priority countries in the WHO European Region, 2007 – 2015”, which has a focus on such countries as  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Estonia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

 

Read more facts about activities against tuberculosis and countries profiles on the website of WHO/Europe.

 

28.03.08

According to ECDCs journal Eurosurveillance, a new Framework Action Plan to fight Tuberculosis in the European Union has been developed by ECDC as a response to the call from the EU Health Commissioner in March 2007. Even though many European Union countries show a decline in tuberculosis incidence rate, the disease remains a serious public health threat in the European region.

 

The Framework Action Plan to fight Tuberculosis in the European Union goal is to control and eliminate tuberculosis. It aims at increasing political and public awareness of tuberculosis as a public health issue in the EU, supporting and strengthening EU Member States’ efforts against tuberculosis and contributing to the control of tuberculosis in the EU by supporting those countries from which imported cases originate, reports Eurosurveillance.

 

Four basic principles of the plan - ensuring prompt and quality care for all; strengthening capacity of health systems; developing new tools; and building partnerships and collaboration with countries and stakeholders – are linked to the areas for strategic development.
Close collaboration with countries neighboring the EU will be essential in the implementation of this plan in order to contribute to the global reduction of tuberculosis.   Read more about the Framework Action Plan to fight Tuberculosis in the European Union on the ECDC’s website.

 

28.03.08