HCDCP

Best practices in implementing the International Health Regulations

On 7 and 8 June, the Hellenic Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (HCDCP) and the Greek Ministry of Health in collaboration with the European Commission and the Consumers, Health, Agriculture and Food Executive Agency are organising a two-day conference on “Best Practices in implementing the International Health Regulations“.

The main axes of this two-day conference are:

• Overview of the EU health security framework under Decision 1082/2013/EU on serious cross-border health threats and the interconnection with the International Health Regulations (IHR)
• Interoperability of sectors in addressing serious cross-border health threats and implementation of IHR core capacity standards
• Dissemination of the results of European Union projects in the field of health security
• Sharing good practices and lessons learned towards further improvement of IHR implementation

Conference’s Presentations – Key Points

Session 1

“The EU health security framework on serious cross-border health threats” – Antonis Lanaras, Crisis management and preparedness in health, DG SANTE, European Commission “The WHO vision for the implementation of IHR – monitoring and evaluation, the Joint External Evaluation (JEE) tool Ver2.0” – Nirmal Kandel, Core Capacity Assessment, Monitoring & Evaluation at World Health Organisation, Headquarters (WHO) “Current cross-border health threats” – Massimo Ciotti, Country Preparedness and Support, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) “The role of HCDCP in the management of health threats” – Sotirios Tsiodras, Univ. of Athens-HCDCP, Greece “The Greek experience: monitoring IHR implementation” – Vasileios Diamantopoulos, Administrative Region of Peloponnese, Greece

Session 2

“Preparedness against CBRN threats – EU Action Plan” – Antonis Lanaras, Wiktor Wojtas, Terrorism and radicalization, DG Migration and Home Affairs, DG HOME, European Commission “Results from the EU inter-sectoral table-top exercise «Chimera» on hybrid threats” – Fanos, Crisis management and preparedness in health, DG SANTE, European Commission “Public Health Laboratories and IHR – Efficient response to highly dangerous and emerging pathogens at EU level Joint Action” – Roland Grunow, Robert Koch-Institut (RKI), Germany “Challenges in Public Health: Motivating the community – the ASSET Project” – Valentina Possenti, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Italy “The Greek experience: laboratory preparedness” – Anna Papa, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece

Session 3

“EU actions on preparedness and response planning” – Margherita Fanos, Crisis management and preparedness in health, DG SANTE, European Commission “Crisis communication in the framework of preparedness for health emergencies” – Vanderford, former WHO Director of Communications, USA “European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations and the role of the new Medical Corps” – Iivi Luuk, Directorate-General for European Civil Protection and Humanitarian Aid Operations (ECHO), European Commission “The challenge of vector-borne diseases: the Italian experience in improving” – Parodi, DG for Health Prevention, Ministry of Health, Italy “French experience on interoperability between the health sector and other sectors” – Paux, Direction Générale de la Santé, Ministère des Solidarités et de la Santé, France “Experience gained in Portugal” – Vasconcelos, Directorate-General of Health, Portugal “The experience gained in Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” – Sotirija Duvlis, National Institute of Health Protection, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, FYROM “Experience from the implementation of IHR in Norway” – Karin Nygård, Norwegian Institute of Public Health, Norway “The experience gained in Sweden” – Kim Brolin Ribacke, Public Health Agency of Sweden, Sweden “Experience gained in Serbia” – Verica Jovanovic, Institute of Public Health of Serbia, Serbia “The experience gained in Belgium” – Luc Tsachoua, Federal Public Service Health, Food Chain Safety and Environment, Belgium “Lifesaving lessons of investing in IHR core public health capacity” – Mika Salminen, THL, Finland “Implementation of the IHR, specifically on the international airport Schiphol” – Daisy Ooms, Communicable Disease Control Public Health Agency, Netherlands “Experience in implementing the IHR” – Aleksandar Simunovic, Croatian institute of public health, Croatia

Session 4

“Public health emergency preparedness: Core competencies for EU Member States” – Massimo Ciotti, Country Preparedness and Support, ECDC “From EpiSouth to Medilabsecure” – Silvia Declich, Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS), Italy “MediPIET” – Nikoletta Mavroidi, Greece “AirSAN (Coordinated action to control infectious diseases transmission on the aircrafts)” – Maria an der Heiden, Robert Koch-Institut (RKI), Germany “SHIPSAN ACT (the impact on maritime transport of health threats due to biological, chemical & radiological agents, including communicable diseases)” – Miguel Dávila Cornejo, Ministerio de Sanidad, Servicios Sociales e Igualdad, Spain “JA Healthy GateWays (Preparedness and action at points of entry)” – Barbara Mouchtouri, University of Thessaly, Greece “The Greek experience: core capacities” – Amalia Tzikou, Administrative Region of South Aegean, Greece

Session 5

“Migratory flows and overview of the situation, CARE and PHILOS projects in Greece” – Agapios Terzidis, HCDCP, Greece “Fostering health provision for migrants, the Roma, and other vulnerable groups (EQUI – HEALTH) and Health Assessment Direct grant agreement (RE-HEALTH)” – Elena Val, International Organisation for Migration (IOM) “Supporting Health Coordination, Assessments, Planning, Access to Health Care and Capacity Building in Member States under Particular Migratory Pressure – Project SH-CAPAC” – Daniel Lopez Acuna, Andalusian School of Public Health, Spain “The Greek experience: Migrant health, risk assessment and response” – Ioannis Nikopoulos, Administrative Region of Epirus, Greece

Session 6

“Cross-border threats and the implementation of the IHR” – Agoritsa Baka, ECDC “Emerging and CBRN Threats” – Dimitrios Iliopoulos, HCDCP, Greece “Interoperability of sectors in the framework of preparedness” – Christos Hadjichristodoulou, University of Thessaly, Greece “Tools for Core Capacity Building” – Nikoletta Mavroidi, Greece “Migration and Public Health” – Chrysoula Botsi, HCDCP, Greece