EITaF Mailing list: Subscribe to receive COVID-19 outbreak news in your inbox!

Did you know that you can now receive email alerts every time that a new piece of EITaF Outbreak News is published – EITaF is the official ESCMID source for news about the current COVID-19 outbreak.

If you log in to your ESCMID account using your ESCMID login credentials and choose the link ‘Newsletter and Mailing List’ in the right-hand column, You can opt-in to receiving EITaF news alerts.

› Read more

ESCMID Summer School 2020 Postponement

Vaccine and AMR campaigns from Mediaplanet

Mediaplanet's Value of Vaccines campaign launched through the New Scientist on March 19th. Featuring insights from The Gates Foundation, GAVI, IFPMA and more discussing the importance of immunisation right through life. You can access the Value of Vaccines campaign e-print here.

Mediaplanet's Antimicrobial Resistance campaign launched on November 18th 2019, and featured insights from ESCMID, the World Health Organisation, the IDSA and more discussing the global threat of AMR and what industry are doing to help combat this issue. Read more on Antimicrobial Resistance here.

› Read more

The open access IDSA COVID-19 Resource center

ESCMID and IDSA are joining forces against the SARS-CoV-2 infection, and will share experiences to further knowledge and issue guidance about the disease.
Importantly, the Infectious Diseases Society of America (IDSA) is collecting and openly share resources on the COVID-19 pandemic, including guidelines, protocols, policies, and tools to help practitioners.
The IDSA COVID-19 Resource center, developed by ID professionals and scientific information specialists working together to collect reliable and up-to-date information, can be accessed on the IDSA website. 

› Read more

Public consultation phase on the position paper “Considerations for the care of patients with liver disease during the COVID-19 pandemic” open until 3rd of April 2020

The position paper on treatment of patients with liver disease during the COVID-19 pandemic has entered the public consultation phase.
This guidance document is the result of the concerted effort of EASL and ESGVH-ESCMID.
All ESCMID members wishing to comment on the manuscript need to express their commitment following this link. They will receive the confidential draft of the manuscript along with the comments form for listing feedback.
The deadline for providing comments is the 3rd of April 2020. 

If you have any questions, please address them to guidancedocuments@escmid.org.

› Read more

EMA recommendations on fosfomycin

EMA has recommended that fosfomycin medicines given by infusion (drip) into a vein should only be used to treat serious infections when other antibiotic treatments are not suitable.

Fosfomycin medicines given by mouth can continue to be used to treat uncomplicated bladder infections in women and adolescent girls. They can also be used to prevent infection in men who undergo a procedure whereby a tissue sample is taken from their prostate (biopsy).

EMA further recommends that fosfomycin medicines given by mouth to children (under 12 years of age) and intramuscular formulations (fosfomycin medicines for injection into a muscle) should no longer be used as there are insufficient data available to confirm their benefits to patients. 

These recommendations follow a review by EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP) of the safety and effectiveness of these antibiotics.

For more details including information for patients and healthcare professionals, please click here.

› Read more

Nominations accepted now for Study Group Executive Committees

If you are a member of one of the Study Group listed below, you can now propose your nomination to stand for the election of the new Executive Committee, term 2020-2022. In addition, you can nominate other members and express your support.

To participate in the election process, log in to my.escmid.org with your ESCMID credentials and click on the “Study Group Elections” icon. Only members with a valid ESCMID membership can take part in the election process. Please be sure to renew immediately your ESCMID membership, should it expire before 11 May 2020. Deadline for nominations is 20 April 2020.

The Study Groups that have opened elections are: ESGS, EFISG, EPASG, ESGAP, ESGBOR, ESGCIP, ESGCP, ESGFOR, ESGHAMI, ESGIB, ESGITM, ESGLI, ESGPHM, ESGREV, EVASG, ESGARS, ESGMYC, EFWISG, ESGIE, ESGCD, ESGMD (one member).

For any question, contact science@escmid.org

› Read more

CMI highlight: Image analysis and artificial intelligence in infectious disease diagnostics

Image interpretation is fundamental to clinical microbiology laboratory diagnostics. These specimens provide critical diagnostic information including the presence and categories of microbes, the host inflammatory response, and specimen quality. New artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that excel in image discrimination now open up the potential for automated clinical microbiology interpretation with associated gains in efficiency and diagnostic accuracy. Smith and Kirby, review current artificial intelligence-based image analysis as applied to clinical microbiology and discuss future trends in the field.

Combined with automation, the authors predict that AI algorithms will be used in the future to pre-screen and pre-classify image data, thereby increasing productivity and enabling more accurate diagnoses through collaboration between the AI and microbiologist. Once developed, image-based AI analysis is inexpensive and amenable to local and remote diagnostic use. AI-based image analysis in infectious disease diagnostics will likely find its niche by providing answers in health care systems both large and small where other techniques are not cost effective, immediate, or comprehensive.

› Read more