ECDC: On Air

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.

This time we sit down with Barbara Albiger - ECDC expert specialising in scientific processes, who explains the steps of preparing scientific recommendations and advice.

We go through the nitty-gritty of the data and information collection, verification and expert double-checks that precede the publication of final measures to be taken. We also touch base on the dangers science has been confronted with during the last three years of the pandemic.

You can read more about the ECDC's work in this field on our website here.

In this episode we catch up with Liselotte Diaz-Högberg, one of ECDC’s experts on antimicrobial resistance.

Liselotte explains why it’s so important that we are prudent with the use of antibiotics so that they remain effective.

She also tells us more about the latest data on deaths, resistance levels and antibiotic consumption.

You can find all of the most recent datasets, information and the communication campaign on the European Antibiotic Awareness Day pages here.

Today we are speaking with Laura Espinosa again, but this time about vibrio in the Baltic sea. 

While vibrio may not be so common, indeed, you may be entirely unfamiliar with it, there has been an increased observance of it in the summer months. Laura explains what ECDC does to keep an eye on this particular and peculiar bacteria. 

You can find find the Vibrio Map Viewer here.

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

It is time to talk about the seasonal flu.

And for that, we invited our ECDC influenza expert - Cornelia Adlhoch to talk about what we can expect from the upcoming flu season, whether we need to fear a dual #COVID19/influenza pandemic and how to best protect oneself.

Check our 2022 seasonal #FluAwareness campaign here: https://bit.ly/FluAwareness2022

Want to learn more about #influenza? Visit our dedicated pages here: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/seasonal-influenza

This week, we sat down with Catalin Bercaru and Niklas Bergstrand to talk about their recent missions to Poland and Romania as part of the World Health Organization's Ukraine Emergency Response. 

Communication is a key part of ECDC's response to ongoing health emergencies, and so Catalin and Niklas give us an insight into what is involved and how the theoretical can become practical. 

If you would like to know more about ECDC's work supporting countries neighbouring Ukraine, you can find that here.

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

This week we sit down with ECDC expert in community preparedness, Svetla Tsolova, to talk about how local communities can help in infectious disease prevention and control.

Is it difficult to train the communities in emergency preparedness? Are they an important part of the machine that needs constant oiling? Svetla responds to our questions and goes deeper into the topic, presenting some of the more interesting cases that have occurred in Europe recently.

If you want to know more about preparedness, click here.
We have covered more general aspects of preparedness in a previous episode. If you want to give it a listen, click here.
You can find more information about ECDC at ecdc.europa.eu, or follow us on social media for the latest news.

On today's episode, we speak with Paul Riley - ECDC's expert on preparedness, specialising in biosecurity and biosafety.

Paul points out the difference between the two terms, recalls some of the scariest moments of recent history of bioterrorist attacks and navigates us through the various ways we are protected from biological threats on all levels.

For more information about ECDC, please visit ecdc.europa.eu, or follow us on Social Media.

Agoritsa Baka joins us once again to discuss the ongoing monkeypox outbreak that has seen large numbers of cases in Europe. Agoritsa explains what monkeypox is, where it comes from, and what you can do to keep safe. 

You can find all of ECDC's resources on monkeypox here.

For more information on ECDC please visit ecdc.europa.eu. You can also follow us on social media for the latest news. 

On today's episode, Principal Expert in Hepatitis, Erika Duffell, gives us a bit of background on what hepatitis is, and discusses the most up to date information on the ongoing hepatitis outbreak affecting children.

You can find the latest situation updates on the ongoing hepatitis outbreak here, and more information on hepatitis in general here. For more news and information please visit ecdc.europa.eu or follow us on social media.

Today ECDC has a special episode on the recent salmonella outbreak linked to chocolate products in Europe. Principle Expert in Food and Waterborne Diseases, Johanna Takkinen, speaks to us about what salmonella is, where it comes from, how it can spread, and what symptoms to look for. 

You can find ECDC's Epidemoloigical Update related to salmonella (with links to national food safety authorities) here, and you can read ECDC's Rapid Outbreak Assessment here.

You can find additional information from the European Food Safety Authority.

For more news and information please visit ecdc.europa.eu or follow us on social media. 

On today's episode, we speak with Dr Piotr Kramarz as he discusses his recent field mission to Poland, and working with the Polish health authorities to assist the large numbers of Ukrainian refugees. 

You can find more information about ECDC's on the Ukrainian crisis here and here. 

For more information about ECDC, please visit ecdc.europa.eu, or follow us on Social Media.

In recognition of World Tuberculosis day on March 24th, we will be hearing from Rob van Hest, Public Health TB Control Physician and Epidemiologist in the Regional Public Health Service of Groningen, Netherlands. Rob has extensive experience in TB screening and treatment, especially among urban risk groups such as the homeless and high-risk drug users, as well as asylum seekers. You will hear Rob discussing capture/recapture analysis, a method of measuring the impact of TB, its spread and control, and how to combat under-reporting.

This recording was made before the covid-19 pandemic began.

You can find more information about TB here.

For more information about ECDC, please visit ecdc.europa.eu, or follow us on Social Media.

Dr Rob van Hest's PhD on Capture-recapture methods in surveillance of tuberculosis and other infectious diseases.

Eurosurveillance article on the Completeness of tuberculosis (TB) notification: inventory studies and capture-recapture analyses, six European Union countries, 2014 to 2016.

Dr. Rob van Hest (MD, MSc, PhD) works as a Public Health TB Control Physician and Epidemiologist in the Regional Public Health Service of Groningen. He has extensive experience in TB screening and treatment. In 2007 he completed a PhD thesis on the use of capture-recapture techniques for the surveillance of TB and other infectious diseases.

On today's episode, we speak with Laura Espinosa, Epidemic Intelligence Expert at ECDC, about Epitweetr. This tool allows users to automatically monitor trends of tweets with the aim of detecting public health threats early. It was designed to support public health experts with the early detection of threats from infectious diseases but can be extended to all hazards and other fields of study by modifying the topics and keywords.  

You can find more information about Epitweetr here, or see the Epitweetr page on Github.

You can find more information on ECDC here, or follow us on Social Media for the latest news.

In this episode, we are joined by René Niehus, Expert in Mathematical Modelling, in order to find out more about how ECDC uses models in public health. We get to understand the different kinds of data that can go into models, and how continually analysing new data can build better models in the future. 

You can find more information on the COVID-19 Forecasting Hub here.

You can find more information on ECDC here, or follow us on Social Media for the latest news.

On today's episode, we sit down with Julien Beauté, Expert in General Surveillance. We discuss ECDC's surveillance activities and how the surveillance process works from collection to output for diseases such as measles, HIV, and of course more recently COVID-19. 

To find out more about ECDC's surveillance data, please click here.

For more general information on ECDC please visit ecdc.europa.eu or follow us on Social Media.

The 31st of December 2019 began as normal for Jordi Borrell Pique, the Epidemic Intelligence Officer on duty for ECDC. Soon, media reports began to arrive of patients showing signs of a ‘pneumonia of unknown etiology’ linked to a wet market in Wuhan. For this episode, we sit down with Jordi to recount those early days of COVID-19 at ECDC and remember how quickly things changed. For more information about COVID-19 and ECDC, please visit us at ecdc.europa.eu or follow us on social media.

In today's episode we speak with Teymur Noori, HIV/AIDS expert at ECDC. Teymur explains what the HIV/AIDS situation looks like in Europe, which populations and regions are most affected, and what goals that have been set, and how to reach them. 

Find out more via ecdc.europa.eu/en/hiv-infection-and-aids

On this episode, we speak with Pasi Penttinen, ECDC expert on coronavirus and influenza. Pasi discusses the reasons why there have been hardly any cases of flu recently, what to expect from the upcoming flu season, and whether the COVID-19 pandemic is really ‘just like a bad flu season’.

“In the worst years, we have more than 200,000 people dying in Europe as a result of influenza. Is this really something we should accept as a society?”

Please visit the dedicated ECDC pages for the flu here.
You can find additional information via Flu News Europe.

This week we once again sat down with Director Dr Andrea Ammon to discuss ECDC’s appearance at the European Health Forum Gastein, and in particular ECDC’s session on community engagement for health emergencies.

Excerpts from the session are included in this episode; information on the speakers can be found here.

ECDC’s work on community engagement can be found here.

More information on the European Health Forum Gastein is available here.

In this episode, we sit down with Tarik Derrough - Expert in vaccine-preventable diseases - to talk about ECDC's role in coordinating disease and laboratory networks. These networks bring together experts to collaborate on various topics. We focus one type of network in particular - National Immunization Technical Advisory Groups or NITAGs - which provide technical resources, supply guidance, and make recommendations to national policymakers. 

"People are now able to work together, to learn from one another, and that can only serve a better decision making process."

For more information on the disease and laboratory networks in Europe, please visit the page on partnerships and networks on ecdc.europa.eu.

September 7th is World Field Epidemiology Day so we sat down with Adam Roth, Head of Fellowship Programmes at ECDC to talk about what field epidemiology is, and about the fellowship pathways, EPIET and EUPHEM, that ECDC offers.

"This is intervention epidemiology, it should make a difference."

More information on TEPHINET is available here.

In this episode, we speak with John Kinsman, who is an expert in behavioural change at ECDC. John talks about vaccine hesitancy, the spread of health misinformation and what public health institutions can do to counter misinformation. For more information on vaccines, please visit the European Vaccine Information Portal. 

“Vaccine hesitancy isn’t always the result of misinformation, there are also a lot of other explanations.”

On this episode, we discuss the importance of vaccines, a little bit about their history, the role ECDC plays when it comes to vaccines monitoring and scheduling in Europe and how vaccines help fight not only COVID-19, but also other diseases with Dr Piotr Kramarz - Deputy Chief Scientist at ECDC.

"Vaccination is like a self-defense class for our bodies."

For more information on vaccine schedules in Europe, please visit vaccine-schedule.ecdc.europa.eu

For this episode, we look into how well prepared can we be for public health threats with Dr Agoritsa Baka - public health preparedness expert at ECDC. 

"You need to be able to talk and engage with your community"

For the second episode, we look at epidemiological signals with Dr Thomas Mollet - group lead for the ECDC Epidemic Intelligence team, and how important these signals can be in detecting outbreaks. 

"We are basically hunters of information.”

To begin this audio series, we chat with the ECDC Director, Dr Andrea Ammon on ECDC's past, present and future and what the current pandemic can bring into the European overview of infectious diseases. 

"Like building an aeroplane while you're flying."