The European Union will confront the threat from future epidemics through a new EU Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) to be launched and operational in 2005.
It took just 8 months for the EU Parliament and Council of Ministers to turn the European Commission's proposal into reality. Commenting on the legislative fast-track the European Commission Health and Consumer Protection Commissioner David Byrne said lessons had been learned from SARS and bird flu. “Infectious diseases can pose a deadly threat — and they do not respect national borders.”
The EU already has a system for Europe-wide epidemiological surveillance of infectious disease, but cooperation to investigate and control epidemics is ad hoc.
The ECDC, based in Stockholm, Sweden, will deploy outbreak investigation teams more quickly. The agency will also coordinate existing expertise on infectious disease.
The ECDC will play a crucial role in tackling and preventing a future influenza pandemic according to a working paper adopted by the European Commission in March. It says the plan is a “launchpad for debate on co-ordinating preparedness against influenza,” and details how the EU and member states should respond to an outbreak.
The plan calls for the creation of an EU network of reference laboratories for human influenza and the creation of “outbreak assistance teams.” These teams would investigate reports of outbreaks both inside and outside the EU and provide expertise to national and local health authorities during outbreaks.
The plan also describes European Medicines Evaluation Agency procedures that allow for the rapid approval of pandemic influenza vaccines and the communication strategies necessary to prevent media speculation and rumour. — Colin Meek, Wester Ross, Scotland