Most reported malaria cases in EU were travel related. Five cases were reported as locally acquired: two in France and three in Spain. The latest data on reported cases in EU is available in the 2016 Annual epidemiological report.
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.
On the 13-14 October 2014, the first Coordination Committee meeting for ECDC’s Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses (FWD) Network took place in Stockholm.
The ninth Healthcare Infection Society (HIS) International Conference was a three-day conference focussing on infection prevention and control, organised by the HIS in collaboration with the French Society of Hospital Hygiene (SF2H). The conference programme covered a range of key topics such as epidemiology, surveillance, information technology in infection prevention and control, decontamination, blood borne viruses, antimicrobial resistance and rapid diagnostic methods.
On 14-15 January 2015 an ECDC consultation gathered public health experts, entomologists and epidemiologists from Europe, as well as experts from WHO, CDC and PacNet, to review the EU preparedness to dengue and chikungunya importation and onwards transmission and produce a roadmap towards improved EU preparedness.