Regional Committee (RC) for Europe had its regular annual meeting on 12-15 September in Bucharest, Romania.  It was attended by representatives of 52 European countries, European Commission, Council of Europe, World Bank, various UN bodies, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and various international associations and NGOs.  The Ministry of Health and Social Welfare’s staff in the Croatian delegation were the state secretary, Dr Ante‑Zvonimir Golem, and the head of the International Collaboration Department, Mrs. Sibila Zabica.  Professor Marija Strnad who, until this session, was a member of the RC Standing Committee also attended.  The following resolutions were passed;

·          Framework Resolution on Alcohol in the European Region

·          European Ministerial Conference on Mental Health

·          Date and venue for the regular RC meetings RC in 2006 and 2007

·          Framework Health‑for‑All Policy; renewed in 2005

·          European Strategy on Health and Development of Children and Adolescents

·          Strengthening of European Health Systems in Continuation of WHO/EURO “Adaptation Serves New Needs” Strategy for Europe

·          Injuries in the European Region

More details could be found on the web site www.euro.who.int.

INFECTIOUS DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGY SERVICE
(Ministry of Health’s Reference Centre for Epidemiology)
- Head, Prof. Dr Ira Gjenero-Margan

The Service staff attended the International Symposium on Immunisation at Neum.  In connection with Croatian citizens potentially becoming exposed to rabies in Canada, the World Health Organisation and the Canadian National Agency for Public Health were contacted.  At Darda, Dr Branko Kolaric gave a lecture on the prevention of sexually transmitted diseases.   Taking the occasion, he focussed on the Romanny population to look into their vaccination status, finding that immunisation records were kept excellently, and that the immunity was equally satisfactory.  To clarify a case of measles imported into Croatia, we contacted the Statens Serum Institute of Copenhagen, which keeps EUVAC, the European system for the monitoring of immunisable diseases.  A meeting with all epidemiologists took place at CNIPH to inform them about preparations for the vaccination against influenza starting this month.  This year 563,000 vaccine doses were purchased, 13,000 more than in 2004.

CHRONIC MASS DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGY DEPARTMENT
- Head, Pr Vlasta Hrabak-Zerjavic, MD, MSc

At the invitation of WHO/EURO in Rome, on 20‑22 September Pr V. Hrabak-Zerjavic, MD, MSc participated in the activity of the Working Group Drafting a European Strategy against Chronic Diseases.  There a decision was taken regarding the chapters and contents to be included in the first draft of the Strategy.  The draft version of the Strategy will be a discussion topic for national chronic disease co‑ordinators from the European Region.

Organised by Croatian Medical Association and by Croatian Society for Atherosclerosis, the Fifth Croatian Congress on Atherosclerosis with international participation was held on 21‑24 September in Zadar.  Its programme consisted of invited lectures and poster presentations.  The Congress presented topical themes connected with atherosclerosis, its epidemiology, pathogenesis, risk factors, and possibilities of its prevention, diagnosing and treatment.  On behalf of CNIPH attending there were Pr Vlasta Hrabak‑Zerjavic, MSc, a lecturer invited to talk on the “Epidemiology of Cardiovascular Diseases in Croatia” and Dr V. Kralj as the first author of a poster dealing with the “Cardiovascular Disease Mortality in Croatia”.  The first author of a poster “Epidemiologic Report on Hypertensive Diseases in Croatia” was Dr N. Antoljak.

The World Heart Day, 25 September, was marked in collaboration with the Croatian Cardiologic Society and the City Office of Health, Work and Social Welfare.  Traditionally the World Heart Day is marked annually on the last Sunday in September.  This has the purpose of warning about the worrying consequences of cardiovascular disease morbidity and mortality, and increase the awareness of the whole society of the need and importance to adopt a healthier lifestyle, and maintain and improve cardiac health.  This year, the central promotional event with the motto: “healthy body weight – healthy form for the body” with an educational and entertainment programme suited to the occasion took place on Zagreb’s main square (Trg bana Jelacica). 

SOCIAL MEDICINE SERVICE

- Head, Pr Urelija Rodin, MD, MSc

As a co‑author of the report “Functional Telemedicine Environment in the Framework of Croatian Healthcare Information System”, Pr Ranko Stevanovic, ScD attended on 13‑15 September in Zagreb a NATO Advanced Research Workshop.  As an Organising Committee member he also took part in the conference “New Developments in Quality and Care: Everyday Applications” organised on 23‑24 September in Zagreb by the European Society for Quality in Health and Croatian Medical Society’s Croatian Society for Improved Health Care.

As the author of five papers, Pr Ranko Stevanovic, ScD participated in the Fifth Congress of Croatian Family Physicians organised in Rovinj on 29 September-1 October by Croatian Medical Association.  They are: 1. Is a Return to the Concept of Family Physician Feasible: Ensuree Views and Attitudes?”, 2. Preventive Medical Check‑ups of the Ensured Aged above 45 Years in 2004”, 3.  “Primary Health Care Reform – Establishment and Development of the Primary Health Care Information System”, 4. “Elderly at Family Physician’s Surgery”, 5. Proposed Development Strategy for Croatia’s Family Medicine Service”.  These papers were co‑authored by Social Medicine Service staffers Ivan Pristas, MD, Ana Ivicevic Uhernik, MD, MSc, and Sandra Mihel, MD.

MICROBIOLOGY SERVICE
- Head, Prof. Dr Gordana Mlinaric-Galinovic

CEFORM (1^st Central European Forum for Microbiology) is due to take place at Keszhtely, Balaton in Hungary on 26‑28 October.  Five staff of this Service will attend with reports on subjects from bacteriology, virology and TB diagnostics. 

Preparations have begun for “Respiratory infections: epidemiologic and clinical picture, diagnosis, therapy and prevention of tuberculosis and mycobacterioses”, a category one postgraduate continuing education course scheduled for April 2006.

ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SERVICE

- Head, Krunoslav Capak, MD, MSc

On September the 30th, a symposium named “Comprehensive Approach to Promoting Schoolchild Nutrition” was held in the Zagreb Forum hall.  Croatian National Institute of Public Health (CNIPH) and Croatian Academy of Medical Sciences (CAMS) were the organisers. 

Taking part in the Symposium was CNIPH, CAMS, Croatian Institute of Education and primary school staffers.  The event was to familiarise professionals and the public with the data on nutritional status of schoolchildren, their living and dietary habits, and educational contents regarding food and nutrition, school diet organisation as well as proper nutrition promoting activities. 

Based on an analysis of the present nutritional status, living and dietary habits, technical experience and modern scientific knowledge in the area of schoolchildren’s nutrition and health, the Symposium considered guidelines for a comprehensive approach to nutritional promotion to ensure the optimal growth and development of a child and the maintenance of his health.

A comprehensive approach subsumes collaboration between the school and parents, with school health, food suppliers, local community and other participants outside the education on the subject of creation and implementation of nutritional policy at school.

The educational role of school is particularly important not only in the acquisition of theoretical knowledge on nutrition, but also in the formation of proper dietary habits in the sense of educational contents about food and nutrition being applied practically through the provision of appropriate meals during the children’s stay at school.

Children’s school‑age covers a period in the course of which they acquire diverse knowledge and adopt living habits, grow intensively and develop, hence the importance for them to receive a sufficient and proper diet. 

Because of the dynamics of life, in a modern family children and youths take cooked food meals rather irregularly, eating ever more often outside their parents’ home.  The foods involved are most often rich in energy because of their high sugar and fat contents, and mainly poor in vitamins and minerals as they lack a sufficient amount of protective substances.  Combined with insufficient daily physical activity, the above trends in the changing mode of diet exert a negative influence on nutritional and health statuses of children, favouring the development of obesity and other risk factors for the development of certain chronic noncommunicable diseases in adulthood (diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, osteoporosis).