The uptake of seasonal influenza vaccination in EU Member States has not reached the target levels in the 2009 Council Recommendations. This knowledge sharing workshop is intended to support communications activities surrounding national influenza vaccination campaigns, specifically campaigns targeting healthcare workers. The workshop will highlight good practices and success stories, as well as share encouraging and challenging experiences of the Member States’ campaigns. It will also discuss and consider ways ECDC can support Member States in their campaigns through the creation of a “community of practice”, and how best to achieve that via the existing platforms and tools.

This practical course will cover outbreak investigation, pandemic planning, recent developments in respiratory pathogen biology and therapy, and will focus around two practical scenarios in which participants will gain experience in managing an acute epidemic. Research during an epidemic and ethical aspects will also be covered.

The aim of the workshop was to strengthen capacity in Member States of the European Union (EU) and of the European Economic Area (EEA) in increasing and strengthening knowledge on the use of scientific evidence for assessment, decision-making and communication of cross-borders health threats in the European Union.

The overall aim of the workshop was to boost the advancement in this field, to reflect on the work done by countries, to share experiences with EU/EEA Member States, and to identify key priority areas that need to be addressed at regional level in Western Balkans.

This workshop is designed to strengthen the capacity to use whole genome sequencing of human pathogens for public health investigations in EU/ EEA Member States.