The European public health and blood authorities responded to the threat posed by West Nile virus to blood safety of blood and blood components by adopting preventive measures which are defined in the EU blood legislation, professional guides of the Council of Europe and the EU WNV blood transfusion preparedness plan. The measures include the deferral of blood donors that have visited or residing in a NUTS 3 area considered to be affected (i.e. with at least one confirmed case).

The expert consultation meeting organised by ECDC seeks to identify enabling factors and barriers to good practice in community engagement in the context of public health emergency preparedness. Outcomes of this meeting will inform the development of an ECDC guidance on the topic.

ECDC organises a briefing on its preparedness and response activities, combined with a workshop ‘Detection and assessment of public health threats in the European Union’.

ECDC delivered Training courses for communicable disease outbreak investigation in years 2007, 2008 and 2009 within a framework contract and more than 400 epidemiologists were trained. Still constant need was perceived and articulated from EU Member states. ECDC therefore decided to deliver new set of courses with the same aim.

EPIET "Sampling module" focused on sampling and survey methods, from methodological aspects to implications in terms of public health action.

EPIET/EUPHEM Rapid Health Assessment in Complex Emergency Situations (RAS) module aimed to prepare fellows/epidemiologists to contribute to the multidisciplinary and international response to complex emergencies and mass gathering events, and to apply their epidemiological skills to serve public health interventions.

​The 6th Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses network (FWD-Net) meeting focused on strengthening EU surveillance and response capacity as well as on hepatitis A as an emerging foodborne disease in the EU.

The objective of this meeting was to kick-off the project "VectorNet: A European network for sharing data on the geographic distribution of arthropod vectors, transmitting human and animal disease agents" and establish clear arrangements between all project partners.

​The EHFG is the leading health policy event in the EU and takes place annually. It provides a major platform for decision-makers in various fields of public health and health care.

​The First Annual meeting of the new joint ECDC-EFSA project ‘VectorNet’, the European network for sharing data on the geographic distribution of arthropod vectors, transmitting human and animal disease agents, was held on 27-29 January 2015 in Parma.