The ninth Healthcare Infection Society (HIS) International Conference was a three-day conference focussing on infection prevention and control, organised by the HIS in collaboration with the French Society of Hospital Hygiene (SF2H). The conference programme covered a range of key topics such as epidemiology, surveillance, information technology in infection prevention and control, decontamination, blood borne viruses, antimicrobial resistance and rapid diagnostic methods.
The aims of the meeting were to enable sharing of experiences and good practices between member states, review ECDC’s current programme of work and to help determine future priorities for surveillance, prevention and control of the hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) across Europe.
ECDC promotes the performance of external quality assessment (EQA) schemes, in which laboratories are sent simulated clinical specimens or bacterial isolates for testing by routine or reference laboratory methods. EQA schemes, or laboratory proficiency testing, provide information about the accuracy of different characterisation and typing methods as well as antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and the sensitivity of the methods in place to detect a certain pathogen or novel resistance patterns.
From 18 to 25 November 2016, almost 500 organisations all across Europe are hosting activities to increase awareness of the benefits of HIV and hepatitis testing.
The online database of the ECDC HAI-Net point prevalence survey (PPS) of healthcare-associated infections (HAIs) and antimicrobial use provides European reference data on HAIs and antimicrobial use in acute care hospitals in Europe. See the PPS reports on antimicrobial use by indication and specialty