On the occasion of World Hand Hygiene Day, 5th May, ECDC is releasing new web pages dedicated to the Healthcare-associated Infections Surveillance Network (HAI-Net) – a European network for HAI surveillance, coordinated by ECDC.
The heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) targets seven of the more than 92 pneumococcal serotypes. Concerns have been raised that non-vaccine serotypes (NVTs) could increase in prevalence and reduce the benefits of vaccination. Indeed, among asymptomatic carriers, the prevalence of NVTs has increased substantially, and consequently, there has been little or no net change in the bacterial carriage prevalence.
First annual meeting of the network since it was transferred to ECDC in March 2010. Among the objectives of the meeting is to to present the epidemiological situation of diphtheria in Europe for 2009.
This will be the first joint meeting of the EARS-Net and HAI-Net Coordination groups. The meeting will address epidemiological, microbiological and technical aspects related to surveillance and reporting of antimicrobial resistance and healthcare-associated infections.
In the context of an active nationwide surveillance network, this study describes pneumoccocal meningitis in children aged from 1 day to 15 years during a 8 year study period (2001-2008) in France. 951 pneumoccocal meningitis cases were reported among 3312 children with bacterial meningitis. T
The meeting will take place on 21-22 June 2010 in Udine, Italy. It is held under the outsourced ECDC project “Infection control training needs assessment in the European Union” (contract awarded to University of Udine, Italy), which aims to produce a report on the assessment of infection control training needs, and proposal for future ECDC support to infection control training.