Between 15 March and 6 July 2021, 348 confirmed S. Braenderup sequence type 22 (ST22) cases were reported in 12 European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries and the United Kingdom (UK).
Rapid risk/outbreaks assessment aim at supporting the countries and the European Commission in their preparedness and response to a public health threat. They provide a timely summary and risk assessment of a public health threat for EU/EEA countries related to a specific event. They also include potential options for response. As outbreaks or public health events develop, ECDC may issue updated risk assessments.
ECDC and the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) have launched a number of activities to help strengthen EU/EEA Member States’ capacity for detection of SARS-CoV-2 variants in the shorter and longer term. These activities are one of five action areas of the ‘HERA Incubator’, a new EU bio-defence preparedness plan against SARS-CoV-2 variants launched by the European Commission on 17 February 2021.
This report presents the results of the seventh round of the external quality assessment (EQA-7) scheme for Listeria monocytogenes (L. monocytogenes) typing organised for national public health reference laboratories (NPHRLs) providing data to the Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses Network (FWD-Net) managed by ECDC.
ECDC is supporting a large number of targeted External Quality Assessment (EQA) schemes with voluntary participation by reference or primary laboratories, which are active members of EU surveillance networks.
This report presents the results of the fourth round of the EQA on AST for national public health laboratories on Salmonella (hereafter Salmonella EQA4-AST) within the Food- and Waterborne Diseases and Zoonoses Network (FWD-Net).
This document offers practical guidance for EU/EEA Member States on implementing genomic SARS-CoV-2 surveillance. It also includes advice on how to estimate the number of sequenced samples needed to achieve various objectives, including the early detection of novel variants.
Several SARS-CoV-2 variants have been identified. Some of these variants have mutations that (alone or in combination) may provide the virus with a selective advantage, such as increased transmissibility or the ability to evade the host immune response, or cause possible changes in pathogenicity, thus increasing disease severity.
This document outlines the use of saliva as a diagnostic sample for detecting SARS-CoV-2 infection, considering the advantages, limitations and uncertainties associated with the use of saliva as sample material.