Update: deadline extended until 4 March 2010.

The course will be delivered by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in consortium with the Finnish National Institute for Health and Welfare (THL, former KTL), the Health Protection Agency (HPA) and the Istituto Superiore di Sanita (ISS), from 19 to 23 April 2010 in London, United Kingdom.

The course will cover the following topics:

• vaccine developments and logistics
• surveillance of vaccine preventable diseases (VPD)
• surveillance of vaccine coverage
• outbreak investigation
• evaluation of immunization programmes
• surveillance of adverse effects
• economic evaluation of vaccination programmes
• modelling of disease transmission.

The teaching approach combines lectures, case studies and short presentations of participants. Practical exercises are based on real investigations. The course will be given in English. There are 30 seats available.

ECDC calls for participants for this specific course. The course is targeted at epidemiologists/public health experts from EU Member States (MS), EU candidate countries and EEA/EFTA countries, who are involved in surveillance and/or outbreak investigation of vaccine preventable diseases and immunisation issues in their regular activities at national or regional level. At least one year work experience in this field, and a good command of English, is required.

We assume that the appropriate candidate is working in one of the areas targeted by the course. In order to select the most appropriate candidate we are addressing competent bodies for training with a request to disseminate this information.
All interested candidates will register before 4 March 2010 through the ECDC web page, filling a web based registration form.
Details of registered candidates will be forwarded to the ECDC competent bodies for training of the respective countries, in order to provide ECDC with advice on priority of participation.

 Invitation to apply for the third edition of the course on epidemiological aspects vaccination.