Ticks themselves do not cause disease but if a tick is infected with a virus or bacterium, then that pathogen can be transmitted through the tick’s bite and cause disease in humans.
Childhood immunisation against S. pneumoniae is the most effective public health measure for preventing IPD both among vaccine recipients (direct effect), and among unimmunised populations (indirect ‘herd’ effect).
A vaccine is available which protects against the varicella virus; however policies on vaccine use vary across the EU. Varicella vaccination for all children is only recommended at national level in five countries (for the list of those countries see the ECDC vaccine scheduler). In most countries vaccination is available for adolescents without history of varicella and for the people who have higher risk of coming into contact with the varicella virus, like healthcare workers.
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.