EU Laboratory Capability Monitoring System (EULabCap), 2018

ECDC aims to foster and reinforce the public health microbiology system to provide timely and reliable information for infectious threat detection, the assessment of such threats, and their surveillance at the Member State and European Union levels, thereby ensuring the effective prevention and early control of infectious diseases [4]. To ascertain how well this is delivered, ECDC developed, in close collaboration with national microbiology focal points from all European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries and the ECDC Advisory Forum, the European Union Laboratory Capability (EULabCap) monitoring programme. The EULabCap bi-annual surveys assess key public health microbiology service capabilities and capacities for EU surveillance and epidemic preparedness. The monitoring results help policymakers at all levels identify possible areas for action and evaluate the functional impact of capacity-strengthening activities and health system reforms.

This fifth consecutive EULabCap report presents EU/EEA laboratory capabilities and capacities in 2018 and the trends of previous survey results over the period 2013–2018.