As AIDS taught and TELL ME project highlighted, the risk of stigma in case of an infectious disease can sometimes be very strong. This is an innate reaction to the fear of catching an infection, but it often irrationally widens to discriminate people depending on their ethnicity, origin or job. According to Charlie Cooper, health reporter for The Independent, media can deeply influence the public in this.
ECOM stands for “Effective Communication in Outbreak Management: development of an evidence-based tool for Europe”. The ECOM project is a research project under the EU 7th Framework Programme and runs from February 2012 till February 2016. By bringing together various disciplines, the project aims to go beyond the current knowledge in order to develop an evidence-based behavioural and communication package for health professionals and agencies throughout Europe in case of major outbreaks of infectious diseases.
ECOM's goal is reached through the following specific objectives:
The report published in March 2015 by Medecins sans frontières speaks out clearly against the “global coalition of inaction” and the “vacuum of leadership” in the Ebola crisis in West Africa. Those who were struggling in the field against a huge and out-of-control emergency, without the necessary resources, list the main causes of such a situation: lack of political will, inexperience, and, sometimes, simply fear.
Undoubtedly, epidemics and pandemics are good examples of extraordinary circumstances that may require extraordinary measures. Such exceptionality, however, should not provide an alibi for pandemic planners and policy makers to ignore fundamental human rights. This is why ethics should always be a key element to be considered when planning a proper response to such global health threats.
On October 14-17, Milan will host the 8th European Public Health Conference, organized by the European Public Health Conference Foundation, the European Public Health Association (EUPHA) and the Italian Society of Hygiene, Preventive Medicine and Public Health (SITI).
The World Immunization Week, which will be held from 24-30 April 2015, will signal a renewed global, regional, and national effort to accelerate action to increase awareness and demand for immunization by communities, and improve vaccination delivery services.
Viruses and bacteria are not the only ones to spread during an epidemic. Rumours and misinformation can do that too, eventually leading to the constitution of a parallel information system that could undermine the efficacy of the institutional communication. Similar situations often arise in case of contested knowledge or when only few highly technical experts are left dealing with scientific information.
The Health Department of the European Commission will organise a conference for Member States and partners on lessons to be learned from the Ebola epidemic. The event is organised in close collaboration with the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council and will take place in Mondorf-les-Bains from 12 to 14 October 2015. There will be four sessions, each of them focusing on a specific topic:
Many experts talk about pandemics and about the importance of preparedness but, based on the previous experience with the 2009 A(H1N1) swine flu, the issue of what a pandemic is and when it has to be declared is still under debate.
