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NEWS AND COMMENTS
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Joint meeting of Croatian epidemiological society and ECDC
in Zagreb
During the official visit of representatives of the European
center for diseases prevention and control (ECDC) Stockholm to
the Epidemiology service of the Croatian national institute of
public health in summer 2008, among other, ten points of
further professional collaboration were agreed. One of the
points was an agreement that next, regular winter scientific
meeting of the Croatian epidemiological society of the Croatian
medical association could be organized as a joint meeting,
together with the ECDC with participation of Croatian and ECDC
experts. This plan was successfully fulfilled by organizing 65th
winter scientific meeting in Zagreb in the congress hall of the
Croatian medical association, Subiceva street 9 on 15th
of December 2008. More than 100 doctors epidemiologists attended
the meeting from all over Croatia, as well as a representative
of ECDC and guests from Macedonia and Turkey (countries
accessing the EU too). In the name of Croatian Minister of
health and social welfare and in the name of a national
counterpart to the European ECDC, the Croatian national
institute of public health, the meeting was addressed by the
director of Croatian national institute of public health. The
president of Croatian epidemiological society as a host, also
welcomed all the colleagues present.
In the scientific
part of the meeting 18 lectures were presented, covering various aspects of
epidemiology work: interesting events from the past, microbial resistance to
antibiotics, mass immunization, environmental health, rodent and mosquito
control, natural nidality zoonoses, chronic mass (noncommunicable) diseases
epidemiology etc. All lectures were adjusted to the international audience,
providing English titles in all PowerPoint transparencies, as well as
consecutive professional translation of all speeches at the spot.
For its
presentation the ECDC chose an attractive and actual topic and delegated its
special senior experts for microbiology and epidemiology, who gave a lecture
about activities on control of microbial antibiotic resistance in Europe,
marking thus also the recent European microbial resistance awareness day. This
lecture was followed by a domestic one with the same topic, showing activities
in this filed in Croatia. Beside that, the following other topics were presented
and discussed at the meting:
- Antimicrobial
resistance in Europe and the ECDC activities; marking the European antibiotic
resistance awareness day
- Surveillance of
antimicrobial resistance in Croatia
- Short history of
the Croatian epidemiological society and epidemiological profession in Croatia
- Some important
details from the history of communicable disease prevention and control in
Croatia
- Results of
systematic immunization Program in Croatia and the future perspectives
- Epidemiological
characteristics of pertussis
- Epidemiology of
HIV/AIDS in Croatia
- Problems of
parotitis elimination in Split – Dalmatia County
- The melamine
problem
- Aedes albopictus
mosquito behavior, and monitoring and control measures in the Zagreb City area
and Istra County area
- Monitoring of
mosquito populations in the Zadar County area
- Epidemiology of
chronic noncommunicable diseases in Croatia
- National program
for diabetes
- Epidemiology of
cardial tumors
- Sanation of
damaged water supply system of a town in the Sisak-Moslavina County
- Report from an
international military medical exercise on response against disease
emergencies
- Ticks of the
Zagreb area
- The onomastic
approach to understanding of some epidemiological trends and events in the past
Some pictures
from this meeting can be seen at the web site of the Epidemiology service of the
Croatian national institute of public health: (www.hzjz.hr/epidemiologija.htm).
•
Summer meeting of Croatian epidemiological society
Due to some
circumstances we could not inform about the regular summer meeting of the
Croatian epidemiological society earlier. So, we are doing it now. The summer
regular 64th scientific meeting of the Croatian epidemiological
society of the Croatian medical association, took place in Tuheljske toplice in
Krapinsko-zagorska county on days 6th and 7th of June,
2008. Direct organizers and hosts of the meeting were the colleagues
epidemiologists and others, from the County public health institute. Over 80
doctors epidemiologists attended the meeting. At the beginning, highest
representative of the Krapina-Zagorje county addressed and welcomed the meeting.
First day was filled with 23 high quality lectures, while on the second day an
educative excursion was organized over the Krapina-Zagorje county including,
among other, a visit to the world famous place of discovery of ancient
(Neanderthal era) man of Krapina (Homo krapiniensis) in Husnjakovo, near
town of Krapina. Here follows the list of topics presented at the meeting:
- Welcome and presentation of the host, the Epidemiology
service and the County public health institute of Krapina-Zagorje county.
- Daniel Rodriga,
builder of historical Lazaret and Quarantine facilities in Split
- Choice of
sample size in epidemiological studies.
- One of heath
priorities in Krapina-Zagorje county; a safe water supply
- Problem of
turbid water on the ORL ward of the Sibenik general hospital
- Cutaneous
leishmaniasis, imported cases
- Seroprevalence
and risk for HIV, HBV and HCV infection in persons injecting drugs in 2007
- Outbreak of
norovirus gastroenteritis in a home for elderly persons in Slavonski Brod
- From the
practice of an antirabic outpatient clinic
- Horizontal
spread of postvaccinal parotitis – case presentation
- Novelties about
HPV vaccine
- Some
characteristics of National program for early detection of breast cancer in the
Krapina-Zagorje county
- First results in
implementation of new Program for early detection of colorectal cancer in
Croatia
- Heart in thyroid
gland diseases
- Epidemiology of
injuries in Croatia
- Measles in
Croatia and Europe in 2008
- Preliminary data
on adverse reactions after vaccination with newly introduced DTaP-IPV-Hib, "Pediacel"
vaccine into the national Program on mass immunization in Croatia
- Compiling
monthly reports on vaccine consumption
- Quality assessment of the violent death mortality statistical
data
- National program
for diabtes in Croatia
- Meningococcal
sepsis in a kindergarten in Zagreb
- Salmonellosis
and pet turtles
- Ship sanitation
and ship sanitation control in international travel, in the scope of the new
International health regulations (IHR) 2005, a report from Hamburg workshop, May
2008
On the web site of
the Croatian national institute of public health, Epidemiology service, one can
take a look at some pictures from this meeting (www.hzjz.hr/epidemiologija.htm).
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Encephalitis etiology 2004-2008
In the majority of
encephalitis/meningoencephalitis cases (tick born encephalitis is registered
separately) etiology is not known. An insight into those cases where etiology
was determined, could give some information about actual causative agents. In
the last five years period (2004-2008) there were 27 such cases (7 in 2008). The
structure is given in the table bellow.
Table 1. Causative agents of encephalitis/meningoencephalitis
in Croatia 2004-2008
|
Causative agent |
No |
|
Herpes simplex virus |
8 |
|
Varicella – zoster virus |
5 |
|
Listeria monocytogenes |
5 |
|
Borrelia burgdorferi |
2 |
|
Streptococcus pneumoniae |
2 |
|
Streptococcus beta – haemolyticus, group B |
1 |
|
Taenia solium |
1 |
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