The new-look ECCMID Website is live today!

As of today (4 February 2020), the official ECCMID website has a great new look! As always, ensure that you only purchase registration from the official site.

We are aware of some scam sites that ask for you to fill in a form and then send an email back to you asking for your account password. ESCMID will never ask directly for you account password or banking information via email.

If you are unsure of any step of the registration process, or think that a site may not be genuine, please contact us at eccmid@escmid.org

› Read more

ESCMID Guideline Highlight: public consultation phase of the "ESCMID manual for clinical practice guidelines and other guidance documents"

ECCMID 2020 is approaching: don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy Prof. Pascale Cossart’s Keynote Lecture. Register now!

We are extremely pleased to have Prof. Cossart (head of the Bacteria-Cell Interactions Unit, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France) as a keynote speaker at ECCMID 2020! The title of her lecture will be “Infection by intracellular bacteria: the Listeria paradigm”.

Visit the ECCMID 2020 website to find out about our outstanding keynote speakers and register now!

› Read more

ESCMID Parity Commission survey 2019/2020: participate now!

The ESCMID Parity Commission was founded to review and improve the representation of minorities and gender as well as geographic balance in the fields of Clinical Microbiology (CM) and Infectious Diseases (ID). In 2011, ESCMID conducted an online survey on discrimination regarding gender, minorities and geographic areas among CM and ID specialists in their employment and roles within universities, hospitals and organizations in Europe.

The ESCMID Parity Commission recently launched a new survey about the expectations of ESCMID members in the field of parity and equity, and about the hurdles and difficulties possibly encountered to participate in the activities of the society. We would like to invite any ESCMID members to participate in the survey by answering the online questionnaire here (this takes 15 minutes). The results of the survey will allow us to propose new initiatives to address your unmet needs.

We thank you in advance for your participation!

› Read more

Via ECDC: CHAFEA Call for tender on the provision of EU networking and support for public health reference laboratory functions for antimicrobial resistance

A Call for tender on “the provision of EU networking and support for public health reference laboratory functions for antimicrobial resistance in priority healthcare associated infections” has been published with deadline 23 March 2020. It will be implemented in coordination with the European Commission and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

The call identifier is: Chafea/2019/Health/09

Find out more on this call on the CfT eTendering webpage

› Read more

2020 ISF/ESCMID Sepsis Award Winner: Aislinn Cook

Congratulations to Aislinn Cook, the winner of the ISF/ESCMID Sepsis Award 2020! Aislinn is a research fellow at St. George’s University of London in the Paediatric Infectious Diseases Research Group. There she works on clinical presentation, treatment, and outcomes of neonatal sepsis, as well as paediatric bloodstream infections. She was awarded this prize for submitting her abstract on the NeoAMR Global Neonatal Sepsis Observational Study (NeoOBS) launched by Global Antibiotic R&D Partnership in collaboration with St George’s University of London, Penta Foundation, University of Antwerp, MRC Clinical Trials Unit at University College London and 19 hospitals in 11 predominantly LMIC countries. The objective of the study is to assess mortality rates of hospitalised infants being treated with significant sepsis, as well as describing clinical presentation and recovery, sepsis management and microbiological epidemiology. Hopefully the data collected will be used to inform and design future antibiotic treatments for neonatal sepsis.

› Read more

Open call to join the CMI editorial team

Clinical Microbiology and Infection (CMI) is looking for an editor in clinical microbiology to join the editorial team. They are looking for an editor who will deal mainly with studies done in the laboratory, whether the routine clinical laboratory or a research one. CMI aims to aid the readers in using research evidence for the benefit of patients. Improving the methods and the reporting of results is a worthy goal, and you can contribute by being an editor. The call is open until March 31st 2020. Read more about the call and how to apply for this opportunity here.

› Read more

CMI Highlight: Molecular characteristics of carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales in the Netherlands; results of the 2014-2018 national laboratory surveillance

Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales (CPE) are a threat to public health as carbapenemase-encoding genes such as blaOXA-48, blaNDM and blaKPC are predominantly located on plasmids, mobile elements that can easily be exchanged between species, leading to rapid spread of resistance. Here, K. van der Zwaluw et al. describe the molecular characteristics of CPE isolates obtained within the national surveillance system in the Netherlands between 2014 and 2018.

The authors found that during the study period 2014-2018, the number of isolates submitted for the national CPE surveillance increased each year and the majority of the CPE isolates harbour either blaOXA-48 or blaNDM-1 and belong to the species K. pneumoniae and E. coli. They also observed an increasing number of CPE isolates with other or multiple carbapenemase alleles and the genetic background of both the K. pneumoniae and E. coli isolates were highly diverse, suggesting multiple introductions of CPE in the Netherlands. This dynamic population in the Netherlands justifies a continued close monitoring using extensive surveillance.

› Read more