External quality assessment (EQA) is an essential part of any laboratory-based surveillance system, allowing for the monitoring of performance and comparability of results from participating laboratories, identification of potential issues, and deployment of resources and training where necessary.
In April 2019, Finland reported false-negative or equivocal results in patients tested for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT) using Aptima Combo 2 Assay (Hologic) (AC2).
A pilot project was carried out to investigate the feasibility of HIVDR surveillance in EU/EEA countries and to make recommendations for the design and implementation of a potential future HIVDR surveillance system at the European level.
The overall aim of Euro-GASP is to strengthen the surveillance of gonococcal antimicrobial susceptibility in EU/EEA Member States in order to provide quality-assured data to inform gonorrhoea treatment guidelines. This report presents the results from the 2017 gonococcal antimicrobial susceptibility sentinel surveillance.
Influenza epidemics occur every winter with high impact on disease burden, hospitalisations and excess mortality in countries in the WHO European Region. To understand the characteristics of circulating influenza viruses during seasonal epidemics, virological influenza surveillance is performed and detected viruses are further characterised at national influenza centres (NICs) that are part of the wider network of the WHO Global Influenza Surveillance and Response System (GISRS). External quality assessments (EQAs) are important instruments in assessing the quality of the generated data that are reported nationally and internationally through The European Surveillance System (TESSy).
ECDC is looking to establish a scientific collaboration with an organisation which can perform whole genome sequencing (WGS) of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, carry out related data analyses, share results of the analyses with ECDC and the participants of the European Gonococcal Antimicrobial Surveillance Programme as well as visualise the results.