The 31st IUSTI (International Union Against Sexually Transmitted Infections) Europe Congress addressed the broad range of science and clinical practice in the field of sexually transmitted infections.
The surveillance of gonococcal antimicrobial susceptibility surveillance in Europe is essential for detecting emerging and increasing antimicrobial resistance and making quality-assured data available to inform revisions of treatment guidelines. ECDC coordinates the Euro-GASP network.
In EU, only 1 in every 3 MDR TB patients has a successful treatment outcome; more than half either die, fail treatment or default (stop taking treatment). XDR TB has even worse treatment outcomes: only 1 in 4 patients finishes treatment successfully.
The XXVIII IUSTI (International Union Against Sexually Transmitted Infections) Europe Congress addressed the broad range of science and clinical practice in the field of sexually transmitted infections and HIV.
The Euro-GASP network carries out sentinel surveillance of gonococcal antimicrobial resistance in the EU/EEA and is strengthening capacity for gonococcal culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing through laboratory training and EQA schemes. In addition the network performs molecular typing of Neisseria gonorrhoeae.
As part of the 10-year anniversary events, ECDC hosted a scientific seminar to discuss some of the pressing public health challenges to Europe, such as antimicrobial resistance and influenza.
The ERLTB-Net sub-network of reference laboratories from EU/EEA Member States supports harmonisation of methods and laboratory capacity for tuberculosis diagnosis, antimicrobial susceptibility testing and typing in the EU/EEA.