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.

Today the ESCMID Parity Commission is launching 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!

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ECCMID 30 under 30 – Applications close 10 January 2020

Join us at ECCMID 2020 to experience the Symposium
“More tropical diseases due to climate change?” organized by EITaF (ESCMID Emerging Infections Task Force)

Speakers: María E. Grillet, Jan Semenza

The transmission of infectious disease is determined by many factors including social, financial, ecological conditions, access to care and intrinsic human immunity. Many infectious agents, vector organisms, non-human reservoir species and pathogen replication rates are particularly sensitive to climatic conditions. Numerous theories have been developed in recent years to explain the relationship between climate change and infectious diseases: they include higher proliferation rates at higher temperatures, extended transmission season, changes in ecological balances, and climate-related migration of vectors, reservoir hosts or human populations. The relationship between climate change and infectious diseases in Europe thus calls for careful assessment and analysis.

Visit ECCMID Live to discover more about our scientific programme and register now to take advantage of early registration discounts!

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Call for new Guidelines Subcommittee members

ESCMID is currently looking to select 2 members who will join the first Guidelines Subcommittee (GLS).

Qualified applicants are invited to send their CV and a cover letter (max. 2 pages) stating their motivation, qualifications, experience and publication record to guidancedocuments@escmid.org before January, 20^th 2020.

For more information about the position and the call please visit our website.

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Outcome of the first ESCMID call for guidelines projects

Following the call for guidelines projects launched in September 2019 by ESCMID, 3 were proposals selected for funding:

1. Antibiotic surgical prophylaxis regimens among patients colonised with MDR-GNB and MDR-GPB submitted by Dr. N. Mutters, from Freiburg, Germany with EUCIC.

2. Antimicrobial stewardship in the Emergency department, Dr. J. Schouten, Nijmegen, The Netherlands, with ESGAP.

3. Influenza Management and Treatment Dr. B.Rath, Berlin, Germany, with ESGREV-ESGIE.

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10 ESCMID Members visited the WHO Regional Office for Europe

ESCMID WHO Observerships

On Wednesday 4 December and Thursday 5 December 2019, a group of ten ESCMID observers attended the WHO Regional Office for Europe, Division of Health Emergencies and Communicable Diseases (DEC) in Copenhagen (Denmark), to interact with staff and to become familiar with the organization’s scope of work. Across this 2 day programme, participants learned about a wide variety of topics and the selection process for the participants was not easy. More than 90 ESCMID members applied for the precious ten available observership spots.

Find out more about ESCMID observerships on the ESCMID website and apply for the next call. In case of questions to the ESCMID observership programme, please contact: observership@escmid.org

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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. Read more about the call and how to apply for this opportunity here.

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CMI highlight: Assessment of trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole susceptibility testing methods for fastidious Haemophilus spp.

Trimethoprim-sulfamethoxazole (SXT) is widely prescribed as the initial antibacterial treatment for acute otitis media, non-severe pneumonia and exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. This has led to selection pressures that have contributed to the emergence of resistant strains among common respiratory pathogens, such as H. influenzae. In this study, Y. Sierra et al identify and compare the determinants of resistance with the SXT susceptibility values obtained by microdilution and disc diffusion and propose a more relevant breakpoint for SXT resistance.

SXT susceptibility was tested by microdilution, E-test, and disc diffusion using both Mueller-Hinton Fastidious (MH-F) and Haemophilus Test Medium (HTM) following EUCAST and CLSI criteria respectively. Strains presented generally higher rates of SXT resistance when grown on HTM than on MH-F, independent of the methodology used.

Given the routine use of disc diffusion, a significant number of strains could potentially be miscategorised as susceptible to SXT despite having resistance-related mutations. The authors conclude that a simple modification to the current clinical resistance breakpoint given by the EUCAST guideline for MH-F ensures correct interpretation and correlation with the gold-standard method of microdilution.

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Call for Panel members for ESCMID Guidelines 2020-2021

Following the recent call for clinical practice guidelines projects, ESCMID is currently seeking candidates willing to serve on the panel(s) which will develop the clinical practice guideline(s) for the funded project(s).

Interested and qualified individuals are invited to send their CV together with a cover letter (max. 2 pages) indicating the chosen topic, and stating their motivation, qualifications, expertise and experience (including list of 10 most relevant publications) to guidancedocuments@escmid.org before January 20^th 2020.

For the complete call please visit our website.

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