A network strategy to advance public health in Europe

Abstract

Europe has a long tradition of preventing disease and prolonging life expectancy through organized public health interventions. Nevertheless, considerable challenges remain in a European Union that permits free movement of goods, services, money and people. While pathogens travel freely across borders, national control measures do so to a lesser extent. Thus, public health is hampered by societal, economic, financial and cultural differences and suboptimal collaboration between responsible agencies. These challenges became initially apparent during the SARS emergency and subsequently during the avian influenza threat that drew a lot of media attention. With the foresight to enhance preparedness and response to communicable disease threats the European Union created a specialized agency in Stockholm, Sweden. This new EU agency, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), has the mandate to control communicable diseases in Europe. Since the existing measures were inadequate to deal with multi-country outbreaks, ECDC strives to assess the risk to Member States. This effort can be enhanced through collaboration and networking between European public health practitioners. ECDC has been operational since May 2005 and although still relatively small (151 staff members as of February 2008), the organization is rapidly growing. ECDC, according to its mission1 and under the guidance of its Management Board and Advisory Forum, has focused on developing an integrated surveillance system for the EU, setting up a system for rapid response to outbreaks and epidemics, establishing a unit for health communications and scientific advice (figure 1). The latter provides independent scientific opinions, expert advice, data and information on pertinent public health issues in Europe and leads an initiative on climate change and migrant health. The Health Communication Unit is responsible for communicating the scientific and technical outputs of the Centre to European health professionals and to the general European public, as well as …