ECDC: On Air

On this episode we are speaking with Georgios Theocharopoulos, Scientific Officer for Emergency Preparedness and Response, to discuss ECDC4AfricaCDC, a four-year capacity- and partnership-building project between ECDC and Africa CDC.You can find more information on the ECDC4AfricaCDC project here.

For general information about ECDC, please visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠ecdc.europa.eu⁠⁠⁠⁠, or follow us on ⁠⁠⁠⁠social media⁠⁠⁠⁠.

With the pandemic lessons in mind, steps are taken for Europe to be stronger and better prepared to tackle current and emerging threats of infectious diseases.

ECDC’s new reinforced mandate gives the agency a stronger role to support the EU Member States with surveillance, joint preparedness and response planning and issue stronger guidance during emergencies.

Orla Condell, an Emergency Preparedness and Response expert from ECDC, shares in this episode her insights on the process of building an EU Health Task Force to mobilise and deploy outbreak assistance teams and to strengthen preparedness capacities.

For more on the EU Health Task Force visit the dedicated page here.

For general information about ECDC, please visit ⁠⁠⁠ecdc.europa.eu⁠⁠⁠, or follow us on ⁠⁠⁠social media⁠⁠⁠.

It's 5 May and we mark today the World Hand Hygiene Day.

Hand hygiene or simply - hand washing is one of the simplest, yet most important and effective measure to lower the chances of catching or spreading infectious diseases in public spaces and in healthcare settings!

We asked ECDC's expert in Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare Associated Infections - Diamantis Plachouras to tell us a bit more about the matter - so wash your hands, put your headphones or speakers on, and listen in!

For more on hand hygiene, visit our World #HandHygieneDay dedicated page ⁠here⁠.

For general information about ECDC, please visit ⁠⁠ecdc.europa.eu⁠⁠, or follow us on ⁠⁠social media⁠⁠.

It is April 2023 and more than three years have passed since the first cases of COVID-19 were recorded.

In this episode we ask Bruno Ciancio, ECDC's Head of Surveillance, to give an overview of the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic until now, explain the current state of the pandemic, and provide a glimpse at how it may evolve in the future.

For all ECDC information on COVID-19 click ⁠here.

For general information about ECDC, please visit ⁠⁠ecdc.europa.eu⁠⁠, or follow us on ⁠⁠social media⁠⁠.

European Immunization Week (EIW) is marked across Europe every year in the final week of April. It aims to raise awareness of the importance of immunisation for the general health and well-being of the European and wider population.

To mark the start of EIW, we have invited the ECDC's Deputy Chief Scientist - Piotr Kramarz to talk about the importance of vaccination, the hurdles and current issues we need to overcome.

You can find ECDC's information on vaccines here.

For general information about ECDC, please visit ⁠ecdc.europa.eu⁠, or follow us on ⁠social media⁠.

Today, 24th March is World Tuberculosis Day, so there isn't a better time to talk about TB and the different ways to fight it. Our expert - Senia Rosales-Klintz tells us that this indeed is the plan, and with a deadline for 2030. Can it be done?

If you would like to read the latest news on TB and see the details of the World TB Day campaign, visit our website here.

For general information about ECDC, please visit ecdc.europa.eu, or follow us on social media.

In this episode we catch up with ECDC's Director Andrea Ammon, who gives us the lowdown on the agency's new extended mandate and the EU regulation on serious cross-border threats to health.

Andrea Ammon explains how this will help to better protect European citizens from health threats through improved surveillance, smoother international cooperation, and strengthened preparedness and prevention.

You can read more about the impact of the new mandate here.
For general information about ECDC, please visit ecdc.europa.eu, or follow us on social media.

On this episode we are speaking with Cornelia Adlhoch again, and discussing the avian influenza outbreak, its spread to other animals, and whether we should worry about it spreading further. 

If you would like to read more about the latest report about the ongoing avian influenza outbreaks in birds, you can find it here.

If you would like to know more about EFSA, listen to their podcast Science on the Menu.

You can also hear Cornelia's previous episode on Avian flu here.

For general information about ECDC, please visit ecdc.europa.eu, or follow us on social media.

In this episode we learn about virus mutations by speaking to Erik Alm, ECDC Principal Expert on Applied Molecular Biology.

Erik talks about the reasons why viruses mutate, whether new variants are generally more transmissible and cause more severe disease, and how worried we should be about new SARS-CoV-2 mutations.

Learn more about the current #COVID19 situation in EU/EEA - see the weekly report mentioned by Erik in our podcast here and visit the page dedicated to COVID-19 pandemic on our portal here.

Follow us on social media - see where and how.

How much information can we get from raw health data? Why are statistics so important for our collective health?

We spoke with Joana Gomes Dias, ECDC's expert in Biostatistics, about the important role data can play. In one example, Joana explains the direct impact of COVID-19 patients' health data on state-adapted vaccination policies.

If you would like to know more about the data ECDC uses, you can find it here.
For general information about ECDC, please visit ecdc.europa.eu, or follow us on social media.