Strengthening EU Preparedness Against Epidemics: Dr. Ouzky MEP Opens Emergency Operations Centre At ECDC

Main Category: Aid / Disasters
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 12 Mar 2008 - 1:00 PDT

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Europe's preparedness against epidemics received a boost with the official opening of a state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) at the EU's disease prevention and control agency, ECDC. ECDC's role in an international health emergency would be to rapidly assess the threat posed to EU countries and advise on possible countermeasures. To do this ECDC needs to work closely with health experts in the Member States, the European Commission and WHO. The EOC provides ECDC with the tools it needs to link to its key partners and to monitor developments as they occur 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The inauguration ceremony at ECDC headquarters in Stockholm was attended by representatives of the European Commission, the European Parliament and EU Member States. Dr. Miroslav Ouzký MEP, Chairman of the European Parliament's Environment and Public Health Committee was guest of honour and formally inaugurated the EOC.

Miroslav Ouzky, Chairman of the European Parliament's Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety said:

"When emergencies happen Europe's citizens expect national authorities and EU level bodies to work together to protect them. That is why the European Parliament mandated ECDC to create an Emergency Operations Centre. Better information sharing and coordination can help save lives."

Marc Sprenger, Chair of ECDC's Management Board and Director-General for the Dutch National Institute for Health and Environment said:

"In the EU, disease outbreaks often impact on several Member States simultaneously. Achieving a common understanding of what is happening, and what the risks are is essential in ensuring an effective response. This Emergency Operations Centre can help us do this by linking ECDC with its national counterparts across the EU.

Zsuzsanna Jakab, Director of ECDC said:

"We are grateful to the Parliament for voting the funds to create this Emergency Operations Centre (EOC) and to the European Commission for its continued support and partnership. Today marks an important step forward in strengthening Europe's preparedness against health emergencies. However, there is always more to do. We will be conducting regular crisis simulation exercises to test the EOC's facilities and our procedures. We will also be working with our counterparts in the Member States to ensure their emergency centres are all able to communicate easily with our EOC "

Events such as SARS in 2003, "bird flu" in 2005-6 and the outbreak last summer of the tropical disease Chikungunya Fever in Ravenna district, Italy show that infectious diseases do not respect international borders.

Since the late 1990s EU Member States have been obliged to share information on disease outbreaks in their country with each other and with the European Commission, if there is a potential for the outbreak to spread to other countries. A secure IT-network known as the Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) on health threats links health authorities at EU level and in Member States to make this sharing of information possible. The European Economic Area countries (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) also participate in EWRS.

When ECDC started up in 2005 one of its core tasks was to support and further strengthen EWRS. ECDC can produce rapid threat assessments for Europe and expert advice on threats identified in Europe. It also provides daily epidemic intelligence bulletins to Member States on potential health threats originating outside, as well as inside, the EU.

Background on ECDC

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is an EU agency tasked with identifying assessing and communicating threats to human health posed by infectious diseases. It supports the work of public health authorities in the EU and EEA/EFTA Member States. Headquartered in Stockholm, ECDC has been operational since May 2005.

http://www.ecdc.europa.eu