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The EpiSouth Project
Health threats do not respect political borders. To avoid or contain their spread, prevention through vaccination is possible for some infectious diseases, but for many infectious/communicable diseases and for chemical or environmental threats, surveillance, early warning system and active search and verification of non official information, are presently the only available instruments for public health personnel. Moreover, in order to translate data into appropriate actions, the early detection of cases, the dissemination of the information, the capacity building and a cross-border, harmonic and prompt response are needed to ensure the effective management of the event.
In an environment where circulation of good and people is constantly increasing, the risk posed by global threats in the bio-field is also growing. To fulfil their public health mission, States must not only exert a continuous monitoring of their population’s health, but also set up a capacity to identify health risks emerging internationally that can affect their population.
Among other common features, the countries of the Mediterranean area have common sea borders in the remarkable ecosystem of the Mediterranean Sea. They form a recognized migration system and share common public health problems.
Inhomogeneous approaches and tools, differences in definitions of same events, lack of a proper context and endeavour strongly affect the possibilities of sharing without reservations knowledge and many sensitive data/issues with other countries. This may ultimately have an impact mainly on the more fragile countries and on the health of their citizens.
Appropriate capacity building and strong networking are proven to be efficacious in creating the conducive and capable environment that is critical for addressing specific global and trans-regional threats which may have both an impact on public health and a destabilising effect in the area.
To address these common problems, in 2004 experts from Bulgaria, Greece, France and Italy designed a co-operative initiative covering the Mediterranean region and South East Europe. Spain soon joined the initiative and, on occasion of the Year of the Mediterranean in 2005, the project called EpiSouth was submitted to the European Commission and selected for co-financing.
Presently EpiSouth Network involves the Institutes of Public Health and/or the Ministries of Health of 27 Countries (9 EU and 17 non-EU Countries plus 1 candidate to enlargement country) and collaborating Institutions, which have identified and appointed Focal Points. Participating Countries
EpiSouth Network is therefore the biggest inter-country collaborative effort in the Mediterranean region representing a unique collaborative experience and is a proof of concept that large scale inter-country partnerships are feasible in various domains of control of public health risks.
Although challenges in maintaining trust and sharing stewardship and accountability in such a large network are evident, the added value of this experience is certainly worth the effort. EpiSouth is a novel way of sharing the burden of disease control that focuses on environmental and epidemiological commonalities rather that administrative boundaries. It has gone well beyond existing political tensions, language and cultural barriers and has developed a common and competent technical channel. This is now a concrete framework to build on based on each Country’s needs and on the Network’s competencies and expertise.
The EpiSouth project “A Network for Communicable Disease Control in Southern Europe and Mediterranean Countries” (2006-2010), was officially launched on 1 October 2006 and terminated on 30 June 2010.
The Project has been co-financed by the European Commission (DG SANCO) with the contribution of the EU participating Institutions. The financial support of the Italian Ministry of Health (EpiMed Project) and the EU EuropeAid and DG Enlargement through the TAIEX facility has made the participation of non-EU countries possible.
The EpiSouth Plus project “The Network for the Control of Public Health Threats and other bio-security risks in the Mediterranean Region and Balkans (2010-2013) represents the second phase of the Network’s activities started on 15 October 2010 and ended on 14 January 2014.
EpiSouth Plus receives funding from the European Union DG-SANCO/EAHC and EuropeAid together with the participating national Institutions. The Project is also supported by the Italian Ministry of Health and ECDC.
The new phase implies a shift of the Network’s activities to a wider approach. Building on the knowledge of regional gaps and needs identified during the first EpiSouth implementation in the fields of Epidemic Intelligence, Vaccine Preventable Diseases and Migrants, Cross Border Emerging Zoonoses and Training, the new EpiSouth Plus Project aims at contributing to the control of public health threats and other bio-security risks in the Mediterranean region and South-East Europe.
Apart from three trasversal WPs (i.e., WP1-Coordination; WP2-Dissemination; WP3-Evaluation) the project’s activities are articulated in four WPs:
- Establishment of a Mediterranean Regional Laboratories Network to facilitate common threat detection (WP4).
- Promotion of common procedures in interoperable Generic Preparedness and Risk management among the countries involved in the Network (WP5).
- Enhancing Mediterranean Early Warning functions allowing alerts and Epidemic intelligence information sharing among EpiSouth countries through the development of interoperability with other Early Warning platforms and especially the European Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) as forecasted by the current EU legislation (WP6).
- Production of a strategic document, with guidelines based on assessments and surveys, aimed at facilitating IHR implementation (WP7).