ECCMID 2020 is approaching: don’t miss the opportunity to enjoy Prof. John P.A. Ioannidis’s Keynote Lecture.
Register now!

We are extremely pleased to have Prof. Ioannidis (Professor of Medicine, of Health Research and Policy, of Biomedical Data Science, and of Statistics at the Stanford University School of Medicine) as a keynote speaker at ECCMID 2020! The title of his lecture will be “Reproducible research with small and big data in the era of precision medicine”.

Visit the ECCMID 2020 website to find out about our outstanding keynote speakers and to take advantage of early registration discounts!

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ESCMID Postgraduate Technical Workshop: Applications of MALDI-TOF Mass-Spectrometry in Clinical Microbiology

Applications are now being accepted for ESCMID funded Observerships at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (USA)

Did you know that applications are now beeing accepted until
7 February, 12:00 (CET) for one ESCMID funded observership at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester (USA)?
Please note: This ESCMID funded observership is only available for Young Scientist Members, if they fulfill the eligibility criteria described on the ESCMID website. Use the link below to get directed to the website and submit your application to ESCMID today.

In case of questions, please contact: observership@escmid.org

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Via EITaF: Pneumonia Outbreak in China

A new case of the new Chinese Coronavirus infection has been detected in Thailand. The patient is a traveller from Wuhan, China. WHO has issued guidance on how to detect and treat persons ill with the new virus in a dedicated web page (click here to go to the WHO web page). For laboratorians a specific document have been released including biosafety indication. The available commercial methods established for the other Coronavirus seems not able to detect this new virus.

The sequence of the new virus has been released and could be used for Public Health purposes to check and eventually adapt primers and probe for molecular detection. A phylogenetic analysis show that the new virus cluster with the SARS CoV.

The new virus has been named “2019-nCoV” by the WHO.

Read more on the EITaF Outbreak News page.

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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).

There is one week left to send your application: deadline is on January, 20th 2020.

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.

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

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Call for Panel members for ESCMID Guidelines 2020-2021

Don’t miss the opportunity to become a panel member in one of the recently approved ESCMID Guidelines projects:

1. Antibiotic surgical prophylaxis regimens among patients colonised with MDR-GNB and MDR-GPB, 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.

There is time until January 20th 2020 to submit applications.

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.

For more information, please visit our website.

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CMI highlight: Environmental shedding of toxigenic Clostridioides difficile by asymptomatic carriers:
A prospective observational study

Clostridioides difficile is a leading cause of health care associated infections. The common paradigm is that transmission of this spore forming bacteria, begins when symptomatic patients with C. difficile infection (CDI) shed spores and contaminate their environment.
C. difficile spores are highly resistant to all routine disinfectants used in hospitals. Because the role of asymptomatic carriers in the transmission of C. difficile is not completely clear, M. Gilboa et al, aimed to determine the burden of environmental C. difficile shedding by asymptomatic carriers compared to symptomatic patients and non-carriers in an inpatient non-epidemic setting.

The authors concluded that the environment of asymptomatic
C. difficile carriers is as contaminated as that of symptomatic CDI patients. They found toxigenic bacteria throughout the carriers' environment in various sites of the patients’ rooms and attached bathrooms. This suggests that a major source for C. difficile transmission in the hospital, is probably by unidentified C. difficile carriers, which are not routinely isolated. They can spread C. difficile to their environment, which is not routinely disinfected. Further studies are required to demonstrate the efficacy of detecting
C. difficile carriers and limiting their environmental contamination on reducing CDI incidence.

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