The 13^th Congress of Croatian Family Medicine Association took place on 1‑3 June in Osijek.  Its main technical topic was nephrologic diseases and urologic problems tackled at family doctor’s clinic.  Also included in Congress Proceedings was a report on the National Cancer Prevention and Early Detection Programme in Croatia by M. Samija, M. Strnad, Z. Ebling, L. Kovacic, and A. Znaor, the editors. Extending his greetings to the gathering was, among others, the CNIPH director Pr Zeljko Baklaic, MSc.

J.J. Strossmayer University School of Medicine, Croatian Society for Hypertension, Croatian Society of Physiologists and the Osijek Clinical Hospital have organised the First International Symposium on Hypertension held on 25‑27 August in Osijek. A section apart was devoted to the subject of prevalence, demography and risk factors for pathophysiology of hypertension.  It was co‑chaired by M. Strnad (Croatia) and A. Cano (Spain). Within this theme came the presentation of the report “Demographic Characteristics of Hypertensive Patients–Results of Croatian Health Survey 2003”, authored by M. Strnad, M. Erceg, J. Kern and S. Vuletic.

A symposium held at Novalja on 26 August was titled “Improving the Life Quality of Especially Needy Children”.  It was organised by “Mother for Child”, a welfare community established to assist children with special needs.  On behalf of our Disability Prevention Department Dr Tomislav Benjak delivered a lecture “Life Quality of the Specially Needy Children’s Parents”.

INFECTIOUS DISEASE EPIDEMIOLOGY SERVICE

- Head, Prof. Dr Ira Gjenero‑Margan

Under the auspices of the minister of health and social welfare, Assistant Prof. Dr Neven Ljubicic and in the arrangement of CNIPH, a symposium on tuberculosis surveillance and control took place at Obrovac.  Besides of epidemiologists, the conferees consisted of microbiologists, lung specialists and other professionals concerned with this disease.  A Service staff conferee was Dr Aleksandar Simunovic, tuberculosis control coordinator in Croatia.  He emphasised that whereas Croatia’s annual tuberculosis cure rate was 70%, our aim for the cure was 85% of TB patients.  Given the importance in this matter of recognising the disease early, our experts are organising and providing supplemental training to general practitioners without whose effort no significant breakthrough could be expected in the early recognition of many diseases, tuberculosis included.  It is general knowledge that in Eastern Europe there has both been an increase in the incidence of HIV infection and that tuberculosis very often accompanies AIDS as a complication.  Professor Dr Giovanni Batista Migliori, the chief WHO consultant and one of the foremost experts on tuberculosis control discussed this association as well as recent knowledge of this topic.  Representatives of different prefectures reported their own experience each in tuberculosis surveillance and control, and further training plans for general practitioners.  The strategy to take in the eradication of this illness also requires continuous surveillance and evaluation of the steps taken; a new symposium on the same subject has already been announced for 2007.

Organised by CNIPH and Public Health Institute of the Sibensko‑Kninska County, the annual gathering of Croatian Medical Association’s Epidemiological Society took place at Murter in June.  A number of reports in the purview of Croatian epidemiologists were delivered; they covered to an equal extent the areas of epidemiology of infectious diseases and noncommunicable diseases.

Dr Branko Kolaric, head, HIV Department, and collaborators have prepared for WHO a national report drafted according to the UNGASS criteria.

Service head Professor Ira Gjenero‑Margan and Dr Borislav Aleraj (national focal point for international health legislation, IHR) participated in the work of the appointed committee for negotiations with the EU on health sector.

SOCIAL MEDICINE SERVICE

- Head, Pr Urelija Rodin, MD, MSc

Medical Demography Department has completed the mortality data analysis.  In 2005, 51,790 people died, or 2,034 more than in 2004.  Their causes of death have appeared in the “Report on Croatia’s Deaths, 2005” and on CNIPH’s web page.

CNIPH and the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare plan to undertake in 2006 a coroner training programme on the national level aimed at improving the quality of mortality figures, still one of the most reliable sources of health information.  To achieve the target of data quality improvement, a new Death Certificate form and a coroner’s manual aligned on EUROSTAT recommendations will be designed within this project.

A bilateral screening for chapter 18, Statistics, was done on 13‑14 July in Bruxelles.  The meeting was attended by EU (DG ENLARG, DG STAT) representatives and by a Croatian delegation made up of Zlatan Frölich, ScD (member of the negotiation team for the statistics chapter); Mr. Darko Jukic (leader of the preparatory working group for negotiations on statistics): members of the working group from the Bureau of Statistics, Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integrations, Croatian National Institute of Public Health, National Bank of Croatia, and Institute of Economics.  Through its reports at the meeting the Croatian delegation showed to what extent the Republic of Croatia is harmonised in the legislative and implemental regard with the acquis communautaire of the EU in 12 areas of statistical research.  Pr Vlasta Deckovic‑Vukres, ScD, presented the progress in areas 36 and 37 (public health, and work health and work safety).  

SCHOOL HEALTH SERVICE

- Head, Pr Marina Kuzman, MD, ScD

The Fifteenth Summer School organised by European Consortium in Public Health and Health Promotion (ETC‑PHHP) took place on 24 July‑4 August in Zagreb.  The Consortium had been established by public health schools and institutes from eight European towns/states: Valencia (Spain), Gothenburg (Sweden), Liverpool (Great Britain), Zagreb (Croatia: Andrija Stampar School of Public Health), Prague (Czech Republic), Cagliari (Italy), Wageningen (Netherlands) and Düsseldorf (Germany).  This year’s Summer School host was Andrija Stampar School of Public Health.  It unfolded under the name: “Sailing across New Seas–Capacity Building for Health Promotion Action”.  In line with this title, the focus was laid on the School’s targets as follows (i) advancement of public health activity, knowledge and skills, and exchanges of experience among European states (ii) training participants in understanding and using in daily life the philosophy and ethical principles of health promotion in a pan European context, with special focus on developing the health‑centred strategies.  As a School preliminary there were two months of remote learning aimed to prepare the course takers for their participation.  The course takers, numbering 30, came not only from some European countries but also from South Africa and Canada.  They had various professional backgrounds (health and educational sectors).  This summer school has one special advantage: it enables exchanges of experience.  Attendees from CNIPH were doctors Iva Pejnovic Franetic and Ivana Pavic Simetin. 

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

An international Global Consultancy Training Workshop for the National Reference Laboratory of Tuberculosis Control took place on 25‑29 June in Cairo, Egypt.  A branch of WHO for Eastern Mediterranean states, EMRO, gave its backing to its organisation.  The purpose of the course was to enable future invited consultants (14 of them) to help organise a network of TB laboratories and raise the level of tuberculosis control in accordance with the WHO standards.  The heads of 14 national reference TB laboratories from all continents attended.  As a future consultant, invited from CNIPH to this course was Dr V. Katalinic Jankovic, head of our TB Diagnosis Department.

A Pasteur Institute‑organised gathering on 29‑30 June in Paris was the “First International Conference “Avian Influenza in Humans”.  On behalf of the Virology Department, Dr V. Drazenovic participated as head of the National Centre for Influenza.  The conference heard presentations of the latest knowledge about the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of human infections with avian influenza virsuses, and about the currently topical strain A/H5N1/ in particular.  Also presented at the Conference were some new diagnostic procedures, which had been introduced as part of the ongoing epidemic control measure refinement at this Institute and scheduled for realisation in the forthcoming period.  The inevitability of the approaching influenza pandemic stands out as the main conclusion of the Conference.

The WHO working group LSTF (Laboratory Strengthening Task Force) held its meeting on 8‑9 July in London.   From CNIPH there attended Dr V. Katalinic Jankovic who, as a member of this expert group on TB diagnosis, had the task to produce a list of select professionals for the application of laboratory diagnosis of tuberculosis in European countries in keeping with the WHO requirements.  In the follow‑through of the meeting, the ESM Congress 2006 (ESM is the European Society for Microbacteriology) took place from 9‑12 July: Dr Jankovic attended it in her other capacity of chair of the chapter on ecology of mycobacterioses as well.  The CNIPH conferees were Dr Jankovic and engineer M. Obrovac in collaboration with Dr M. Zolnir‑Dovc and associates from Slovenia.  The joint work was illustrated by the poster “Genotyping of MDR strains from two neighbouring countries–Slovenia and Croatia”.   The main themes of the current year’s Congress were devoted to the  gene typing of mycobacteria and to the use of gamma‑interferon in the detection of latent infections with Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

Under the sponsorship of the minister of health and social welfare Assistant Prof. Dr Neven Ljubicic, CNIPH and county public institutes are preparing the festive Tenth Scientific and Technical Conference on Water and Public Water Supply.  Central to it would be the topic “past, present and future of public water supply in Croatia”.  Scheduled for 3‑6 October 2006 it is to be held at the Alan Hotel at Starigrad Paklenica. 

10th anniversary of

water and water supply conferences

Apart from the central theme, other water‑related issues to discuss relate to water safety, technology, protection, analytical methods and legislation, which give professionals with different backgrounds an opportunity to bring forward their experience, knowledge and opinion in connection with this always topical and interesting area.  For more information click www.hzjz.hr.