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Our work in 2021 /

Prevention and Control

In 2021, ECDC continued the coordination and operation of 19 disease networks, including the recently created ECOVID-Net (established in 2020) and E-SARI-Net (established in 2021), and seven public health networks.

colleagues having a meeting

Specific efforts included

  • work to strengthen vaccination programme delivery and vaccine confidence.
  • provision of guidance to develop evidence-based policies for prevention programmes on COVID-19, HIV, and TB.
  • antimicrobial stewardship and infection prevention and control-related activities in healthcare settings.
  • raising awareness of the important public health issues e.g., European Antibiotic Awareness Day, World Antimicrobial Awareness Week, HIV/hepatitis Testing Week, World Hepatitis Day, World AIDS Day, World TB Day, European Immunisation Week, and Influenza Awareness Week).
  • monitoring control programmes and country preparedness for a range of infectious disease threats like foodborne outbreaks and influenza, to mention a few.
  • ECDC published technical guidance on HIV pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP). This guidance provides Member States with practical recommendations and key considerations to inform the development and implementation of PrEP programmes at national and sub-national levels. As a follow up to this guidance, ECDC developed evidence-informed indicators for monitoring of HIV PrEP programmes.
  • Throughout the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, ECDC has been providing relevant and high-quality pandemic monitoring data and scientific advice on COVID-19 prevention and control in support of the European Commission and EU Member States. With the introduction of COVID-19 brand-specific vaccines, the European monitoring platform was set up jointly with EMA to assess the impact and effectiveness of those vaccines as well as detect possible safety signals, which deserve further investigation. Several studies started in close collaboration with the EU Member States and WHO European Region.
  • ECDC continued supporting the implementation of the 2018 Council Recommendation on Strengthened Cooperation against Vaccine-Preventable Diseases, with a special focus on COVID-19 and influenza vaccines. The Centre was working in close collaboration with the National Immunisation Technical Advisory Groups (NITAGs) and the Health Security Committee to support policy makers and public health experts at national level in the development of vaccine deployment plans, roll-out of vaccination campaigns, and implementation of vaccination strategies for COVID-19 vaccines. Twenty-five webinars with the NITAGs were organised by ECDC in 2021 on those topics, with the participation of EU and international stakeholders, such as US CDC, non-EU countries, and WHO.
  • Monitoring of indicators to measure how far Member States have achieved the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the areas of HIV/AIDS, hepatitis, and TB together with comprehensive progress reports provide important feedback and data to countries helping them to benchmark and plan better their use of resources.
  • ECDC aims to further identify and develop its role in prevention and control of infectious diseases in a zoonotic and One Health perspective. In 2022, work will start to develop an ECDC One Health framework with strategic objectives. In cooperation with EFSA, ECDC provided in 2021 relevant and high-quality monitoring data and scientific advice for food and waterborne disease outbreak prevention and control to support the European Commission and EU Member States.
  • Trends in AMR in infections from zoonotic bacteria were monitored and compared with those from livestock and food in a One Health approach. Results of these analyses were published on 30 June 2021 in the third report on the Joint Interagency Antimicrobial Consumption and Resistance Analysis (JIACRA III, jointly with EFSA and EMA).
  • Collecting information on the diversity, ecology and epidemiology of vector-borne human pathogens and their vectors continued in 2021. The public health impact of the non-vectorial transmission routes of Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) virus was investigated over a systematic survey. The public health impact of leishmaniasis was assessed in the EU/EEA and its neighbourhood countries. The geographic distribution, public and animal health impact, surveillance, response and control methods of West Nile virus and Usutu virus infections were studied involving public health, animal health, entomology and SoHO sectors in a one-health project. The frequency of airport- and luggage-related, imported malaria cases in Europe was analysed. The changes in the distribution of relevant pathogen vectors were monitored through biannual updates of vector distribution maps in Europe.