The fifth meeting of the Hepatitis B and C Network aims to bring together experts from across the EU to discuss how Europe can improve its response to the epidemics of hepatitis B and C with a focus on surveillance, estimating prevalence, and the monitoring of response.
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.