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
At a special joint session combining experts from the National Microbiology Focal Points and ECDC's Advisory Forum, ECDC Director, Dr. Marc Sprenger, set out his vision for the agency’s role in strengthening public health microbiology across Europe: By 2016, ECDC will foster the development and facilitate the operation of an efficient public health microbiology system capable of providing timely and reliable information for infectious disease prevention and control at Member State and EU levels
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.
The authors describe the epidemiology of invasive Hib and nontype b H. influenzae infections in children <15 years of age in the United Kingdom from 1994 until 2008, and show that the resurgence in Hib disease during the years 1999-2003 did not affect the epidemiology of invasive nontype b H. influenzae disease in children, which provides further support against serotype replacement.
Objectives: Acquire skills in outbreak investigation methods, planning, establishment and evaluation of surveillance systems, applied research, communication and teaching
In response to antimicrobial resistance and to strengthened transatlantic cooperation as agreed during the 2009 EU and US Summit, the Transatlantic Taskforce on Antimicrobial Resistance (TATFAR) published its report today, including a set of 17 recommendations in three key areas for future cooperation in the global fight to keep antimicrobials effective.
The second ECDC advisory group meeting will discuss progress and future challenges in reporting and monitoring following the commitment outlined in the Dublin Declaration.
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 authors review some of the different systems that are used for assessing vaccination coverage within and outside the EU in order to explore the need for improving vaccination coverage data quality.