The European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) is organising the 24th ESICM LIVES Annual Congress in Berlin on 1-5 October 2011. This congress is one of the major meetings, gathering numerous well-known international experts in the field of intensive care medicine.
Location:Berlin
Organized by:European Society of Intensive Care Medicine
Clostridium difficile infection is the leading cause of healthcare-associated diarrhoea in the developed world and represents a major financial burden for European healthcare systems.
Clostridium difficile infection (CDI) is an intestinal infection usually acquired in hospital settings, after antibiotic treatment. The clinical spectrum of CDI ranges from mild diarrhoea to severe life-threatening pseudomembranous colitis. In the recent years, an increased incidence of CDI has been reported in Europe and worldwide.
Patient transfer between hospitals and in particular between countries, is a risk factor for the spread of bacteria that are resistant to last-line antibiotics. More specifically, for highly resistant bacteria, like carbapenamase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE), the risk is heightened when patients are transferred from, or have received previous medical care in areas with high rates of bacterial resistance. These are conclusions from a risk assessment produced by ECDC that evaluated the risk to the citizens of Europe, of the spread of CPE through patient transfer between healthcare facilities, with special emphasis on cross-border transfer.
The report indicates that resistance to antimicrobials was observed in zoonotic bacteria, such as Salmonella and Campylobacter, which may cause infectious diseases transmissible between animals and humans and which can be found in foods.
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued a new report from its Task Force on the Shiga toxin-producing E. coli (STEC) outbreak in Germany and France. The Task Force has now concluded that one lot of fenugreek seeds imported from Egypt and used to produce sprouts is the most likely common link between the two outbreaks. EFSA continues to advise consumers not to grow sprouts for their own consumption and not to eat sprouts or sprouted seeds unless they have been cooked thoroughly.
In his speech to the Informal Health Council on 5th July, ECDC Director Marc Sprenger outlined the lessons learnt from the EHEC/STEC outbreak in EU, as well as the need to strengthen EU cooperation against epidemics.
This review outlines how increasing modalities of travel, such as aeromedical evacuation of civilians and of military personnel, medical tourism and any shared healthcare across countries, are risks for the transmission of multidrug-resistant organisms via the patient, from country to country.
On Friday 24 June, France reported a cluster of eight patients with bloody diarrhoea, after having participated in an event in the commune of Bègles around Bordeaux on 8 June. Of these, seven have developed HUS, a severe complication of E. coli infection. In three of the patients, infection with E. coli O104:H4 has been confirmed.
On June 14, Eurosurveillance published new information on the characteristics of the German outbreak strain of E.coli and how these microbiological findings have been shared in real time by public health microbiology experts to disseminate best laboratory practice for case detection and public health investigations across Europe and beyond.