ECDC: On Air

Joaquin Baruch who was part of the ECDC Fellowship Programme for epidemiologists - EPIET - talks to us about his experiences as a fellow in Malta, as well as doing field work in places such as Western Sahara, Algeria and Mozambique.

In this episode, we dig a little deeper into the fascinating world of biostatistics.

Our guide is Gaetano Marrone - an ECDC expert in the field of statistics and its use in public health.

Listen in to learn more!

Have you ever wondered how substances of human origin (SoHo) - blood, tissues, cells, organs - can be used in medical therapies?

In this episode, ECDCs SoHo Team talks about the lifesaving medical benefits that SoHos can bring and the measures to ensure that they are used safely.

The team also gives an overview of the legislation and regulation at EU-level as well as the importance of cross-border co-operation.

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.

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!

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.

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?

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.

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. 

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.

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.

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

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. 

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. 

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. 

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.  

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. 

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. 

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. 

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?”

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.

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."

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."