A peek behind the scenes at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control - the EU agency that aims to identify, assess and communicate current and emerging threats to human health posed by infectious diseases in Europe.

Meet our experts from a wide range of fields and listen to them discuss the things that matter in the world of epidemiology.

ECDC: On Air - podcasts on European epidemiology

"Like building an aeroplane while you're flying."

First episode of the ECDC podcast presenting the work of experts working in an office in Solna, Stockholm.

To begin this audio series, we chat with the ECDC Director - Dr Andrea Ammon on ECDC's past, present and future and what the current pandemic can bring into the European overview of the infectious diseases.

ECDC: On Air - Episode 1 - Andrea Ammon - The Directors' insights

"We are basically hunters of information”.

Second episode of the ECDC podcast presenting the work of experts working in an office in Solna, Stockholm.

This time, we look at epidemiological signals with Dr Thomas Mollet - group lead for the ECDC Epidemic Intelligence team, and how important these signals can be in detecting outbreaks.

ECDC: On Air - Episode 2 - Thomas Mollet - Looking for signals

"You need to be able to talk and engage with your community".

Third episode of the ECDC podcast presenting the work of experts working in an office in Solna, Stockholm.

For this episode, we look into how well prepared can we be for public health threats with Dr Agoritsa Baka - public health preparedness expert at ECDC.

ECDC: On Air - Episode 3 - Agoritsa Baka - How prepared can we be?

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."

For more information on vaccine schedules in Europe, please visit vaccine-schedule.ecdc.europa.eu

ECDC: On Air - Episode 4 - Piotr Kramarz - Giving the immune system a boost

In this episode, we speak with John Kinsman, who is an expert in behavioural change at ECDC. John talks about vaccine hesitancy, the spread of health misinformation and what public health institutions can do to counter it.

For more information on vaccines, please visit the European Vaccine Information Portal: https://vaccination-info.eu/en

“Vaccine hesitancy isn’t always the result of misinformation, there are also a lot of other explanations.”

ECDC: On Air - Episode 5 - John Kinsman - Vaccine hesitancy and misinformation

September 7th is World Field Epidemiology Day so we sat down with Adam Roth, Head of Fellowship Programmes at ECDC to talk about what field epidemiology is, and about the fellowship pathways - EPIET and EUPHEM - that ECDC offers.

"This is intervention epidemiology, it should make a difference."

World Field Epidemiology Day website: https://www.worldfieldepidemiologyday.org/

Read more on EPIET and EUPHEM: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/epiet-euphem

More information on TEPHINET is available here: https://www.tephinet.org/

ECDC: On Air - Episode 6 - Adam Roth - The Disease Detectives

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."

For more information on the disease and laboratory networks in Europe, please visit the page on partnerships and networks on ecdc.europa.eu.

ECDC: On Air - Episode 7 - Tarik Derrough - Bringing vaccine experts together

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.

Excerpts from the session are included in this episode; information on the speakers can be found here - https://www.ehfg.org/conference/programme/sessions/community-engagement-for-health-emergencies

ECDC’s work on community engagement can be found here - https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/guidance-community-engagement-public-health-events-caused-communicable-disease

More information on the European Health Forum Gastein is available here - https://www.ehfg.org/

ECDC: On Air - Episode 8 - Andrea Ammon - Community engagement for health emergencies

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?” 

Please visit the dedicated ECDC pages for the flu here: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/seasonal-influenza

You can find additional information via Flu News Europe: https://flunewseurope.org/

ECDC: on Air - Episode 9 - Pasi Penttinen - Everything You Wanted to Know About Flu (But Didn't Ask)

In this episode we talk to Olivier Briet, expert at ECDC on mosquito-borne diseases, who tells us more about which diseases are transmitted by mosquitoes, what effect climate change has on the spread of diseases such as West Nile fever and malaria, and what ECDC does to monitor the spread of these diseases.

As always, you can find more information on this topic on our website: https://ecdc.europa.eu

ECDC: on Air - Episode 10 - Olivier Briet - Mosquito-borne diseases and their spread in Europe

In this episode we meet with Teymur Noori, who is an HIV/AIDS expert at ECDC.

Teymur explains what the HIV/AIDS situation looks like in Europe, which populations and regions that are most affected, what goals that have been set, and how to reach them.

Read more about ECDC's work in the HIV/AIDS field here: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/world-aids-day-concerning-number-hiv-infections-going-undiagnosed-shows-new-data-ecdc

ECDC: on Air - Episode 11 - Teymur Noori - Achieving zero AIDS deaths in Europe

The 31st of December 2019 began as normal for Jordi Borrell Pique, the Epidemic Intelligence Officer on duty for ECDC.

Soon, media reports began to arrive of patients showing signs of a ‘pneumonia of unknown etiology’ linked to a wet market in Wuhan.

For this episode, we sit down with Jordi to recount those early days of COVID-19 at ECDC and remember how quickly things changed.

For more information about COVID-19 and ECDC, please visit us at ecdc.europa.eu or follow us on social media.

ECDC: on Air - Episode 12 - Jordi Borrell Pique - 27 Cases of Pneumonia

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. 

To find out more about ECDC's surveillance data, please click here: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/surveillance-and-disease-data.

For more general information on ECDC please visit ecdc.europa.eu or follow us on Social Media: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/about-us/press-and-media/ecdc-social-media

ECDC: on Air - Episode 13 - Julien Beauté - Disease Data Hub

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 new analysing data can build better models in the future. 

You can find more information on the COVID-19 Forecasting Hub here: https://covid19forecasthub.eu/

You can find more information on ECDC here: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en
or follow us on Social Media for the latest news.

ECDC: on Air - Episode 14 - René Niehus - Mathematical Super Models

In this episode of ECDC on Air, ECDC expert Cornelia Adlhoch explains all you want to know about avian influenza – how it spreads, how much of a threat it poses to humans, and the ‘cathedral silence’ that farmers sometimes experience when walking into an infected chicken coop.

Learn more about avian flu on ECDC pages here too: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/avian-influenza

ECDC: on Air - Episode 15 - Cornelia Adlhoch - Avian Flu & The Cathedral of Silence

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.

You can find more information about Epitweetr here: https://bit.ly/ECDCepitweetr
see the Epitweetr page on Github: https://github.com/EU-ECDC/epitweetr/discussions/7

You can find more information on ECDC here: https://ecdc.europa.eu/en, or follow us on Social Media: https://bit.ly/ECDConSocial - for the latest news.

ECDC: on Air - Episode 16 - Laura Espinosa - Tweet-Based Epidemiology

In recognition of World Tuberculosis Day (https://www.who.int/campaigns/world-tb-day/2022) on March 24th, we will be hearing from Rob van Hest, Public Health TB Control Physician and Epidemiologist in the Regional Public Health Service of Groningen, Netherlands.

Rob has extensive experience in TB screening and treatment, especially among urban risk groups such as the homeless and high-risk drug users, as well as asylum seekers.

You will hear Rob discussing capture/recapture analysis, a method of measuring the impact of TB, its spread and control, and how to combat under-reporting.

This recording was made before the covid-19 pandemic began.
You can find more information about TB here: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/tuberculosis

For more information about ECDC, please visit ecdc.europa.eu, or follow us on Social Media: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/about-us/press-and-media/ecdc-social-media

Dr Rob van Hest's PhD on Capture-recapture methods in surveillance of tuberculosis and other infectious diseases: https://bit.ly/3DhEX4t

Eurosurveillance article on the Completeness of tuberculosis (TB) notification: inventory studies and capture-recapture analyses, six European Union countries, 2014 to 2016: https://www.eurosurveillance.org/content/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2020.25.12.1900568

Dr. Rob van Hest (MD, MSc, PhD) works as a Public Health TB Control Physician and Epidemiologist in the Regional Public Health Service of Groningen. He has extensive experience in TB screening and treatment. In 2007 he completed a PhD thesis on the use of capture-recapture techniques for the surveillance of TB and other infectious diseases.

ECDC: on Air - Episode 17 - Rob van Hest - Tuberculosis Capture-Recapture For Dummies

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.

You can find more information about ECDC's on the Ukrainian crisis here: 
https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publications-data/guidance-prevention-control-covid-19-temporary-reception-centres-people-fleeing-ukraine

and here: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/news-events/prevention-and-control-infectious-diseases-context-russias-aggression-towards-ukraine

For more information about ECDC, please visit ecdc.europa.eu, or follow us on Social Media: https://bit.ly/ECDCSocialMedia

ECDC: on Air - Episode 18 - Piotr Kramarz - Aiding Ukrainian Refugees in Poland

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. 

You can find ECDC's Epidemoloigical Update related to salmonella (with links to national food safety authorities) here: https://bit.ly/3Krdakz, and read ECDC's Rapid Outbreak Assessment here: https://bit.ly/3ju5Pov.

You can find additional information from the European Food Safety Authority here: https://bit.ly/3uJLS3n


For more news and information please visit https://ecdc.europa.eu or follow us on social media!

ECDC: on Air - Episode 19 - Johanna Takkinen - Signs of Serious Salmonella

In this episode, we speak with Lara Payne-Hallström, ECDC expert on Legionnaires’ disease. Lara explains what this disease is, where its name comes from, and how and why ECDC monitors it.  She also tells us how she got interested in this disease in particular, and gives us all the details on where the bacteria grows and develops.

You can find out more about Legionnaires’ disease here: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/legionnaires-disease

For more news and information please visit https://ecdc.europa.eu or follow us on social media: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/about-us/press-and-media/ecdc-social-media

ECDC: on Air - Episode 20 - Lara Payne-Hallström - Risk in the Mist

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