Giuseppe
Emeritus
ECDC. MEETING REPORT - Consultation of the ECDC Competent Bodies for Preparedness and Response (Excerpts)
MEETING REPORT - Consultation of the ECDC Competent Bodies for Preparedness and Response
[Full PDF Document at LINK. EDITED.]
1 Introduction
ECDC?s founding regulation, Regulation (EC) 851/20041, calls for the support of community preparedness planning and for an effective response to disease outbreaks, through a coherent and coordinated approach in the Member States.
Preparedness and response activities at ECDC are centralised in the Preparedness and Response Unit (PRU). In 2008, PRU was reorganised into three different sections: the ?epidemic intelligence and emergency operations centre? (EI/EOC), the ?epidemiological training section? (ETS) and the ?outbreak preparedness and support section? (OPS).
The latter encompasses both preparedness and outbreak response activities.
For this reason, the reports of both Competent Body meetings were combined.
The meeting of ECDC?s Competent Bodies for Preparedness took place on 22 October 2008, followed by the meeting of the Competent Bodies for Response on 23 October 2008.
Preparedness activities
To date, the consultation of Member States (MS) on preparedness activities have always been part of annual epidemic intelligence meetings. During the 2007 epidemic intelligence meeting, participants shared experiences from mass gathering events, the planning of upcoming (2008) events, and defined the added value of ECDC activities in this area. In 2008, the first consultation of the recently nominated Member States? Competent Bodies for Preparedness followed up on experiences of several 2008 mass gathering events and explored how to learn from previous pandemic preparedness activities in order to develop generic preparedness activities (Annex 1 and 2).
Response activities
The first (2006) and second (2007) consultations of the Member States focused 1) on the role of ECDC and 2) on standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the investigation of, and response to, outbreaks that threaten or affect more than one Member State. Over the last year these SOPs have evolved into a document called ?Guiding principles for response to public health threats related to communicable diseases at EU level?, a dynamic reference frame for which the Competent Bodies for Response will continue to be consulted.
During the third Member States consultation, the discussions focused on the implementation of these ?Guiding principles for response? and in particular on the added value of the initial threat assessments for the EU (Annex 3). The third Member States consultation also marked the first annual meeting of ECDC?s Competent Bodies for Response, i.e. the dedicated counterparts for response activities in the Member States (Annex 1).
(...)
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1 Regulation (EC) No 851/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 establishing a European Centre
for Disease Prevention and Control.
-
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MEETING REPORT - Consultation of the ECDC Competent Bodies for Preparedness and Response
[Full PDF Document at LINK. EDITED.]
1 Introduction
ECDC?s founding regulation, Regulation (EC) 851/20041, calls for the support of community preparedness planning and for an effective response to disease outbreaks, through a coherent and coordinated approach in the Member States.
Preparedness and response activities at ECDC are centralised in the Preparedness and Response Unit (PRU). In 2008, PRU was reorganised into three different sections: the ?epidemic intelligence and emergency operations centre? (EI/EOC), the ?epidemiological training section? (ETS) and the ?outbreak preparedness and support section? (OPS).
The latter encompasses both preparedness and outbreak response activities.
For this reason, the reports of both Competent Body meetings were combined.
The meeting of ECDC?s Competent Bodies for Preparedness took place on 22 October 2008, followed by the meeting of the Competent Bodies for Response on 23 October 2008.
Preparedness activities
To date, the consultation of Member States (MS) on preparedness activities have always been part of annual epidemic intelligence meetings. During the 2007 epidemic intelligence meeting, participants shared experiences from mass gathering events, the planning of upcoming (2008) events, and defined the added value of ECDC activities in this area. In 2008, the first consultation of the recently nominated Member States? Competent Bodies for Preparedness followed up on experiences of several 2008 mass gathering events and explored how to learn from previous pandemic preparedness activities in order to develop generic preparedness activities (Annex 1 and 2).
Response activities
The first (2006) and second (2007) consultations of the Member States focused 1) on the role of ECDC and 2) on standard operating procedures (SOPs) for the investigation of, and response to, outbreaks that threaten or affect more than one Member State. Over the last year these SOPs have evolved into a document called ?Guiding principles for response to public health threats related to communicable diseases at EU level?, a dynamic reference frame for which the Competent Bodies for Response will continue to be consulted.
During the third Member States consultation, the discussions focused on the implementation of these ?Guiding principles for response? and in particular on the added value of the initial threat assessments for the EU (Annex 3). The third Member States consultation also marked the first annual meeting of ECDC?s Competent Bodies for Response, i.e. the dedicated counterparts for response activities in the Member States (Annex 1).
(...)
-
1 Regulation (EC) No 851/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 21 April 2004 establishing a European Centre
for Disease Prevention and Control.
-
------