ECDC and the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) recently concluded a crucial joint meeting focused on enhancing tuberculosis (TB) surveillance and monitoring across the WHO European Region.
Recent ECDC data show that despite progress in prevention and control efforts, the hepatitis B and hepatitis C viruses (HBV and HCV) continue to pose significant public health challenges in the European Union and European Economic Area (EU/EEA).
In a bid to enhance collaboration and share best practices in HIV prevention and control, representatives from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Cyprus, and Egypt convened in Cairo for the first Exchange of Experts meeting in 2024.
The United Nations has set a goal to end the tuberculosis epidemic by 2030 but despite an overall downward trend of TB cases in Europe, the current decline in the number of cases will not be sufficient to meet these targets.
Tuberculosis remains a global health threat, affecting millions worldwide and claiming too many lives each year. The timely strengthening of prevention, testing and treatment are key elements in fighting TB.
Nearly 7,000 excess deaths from tuberculosis occurred in the WHO European Region in the three years of the pandemic from 2020 - 2022, compared to what experts had expected based on pre-2020 estimates.