UEMO welcomes the European Centre for Control and Disease Prevention (ECDC)’s initiative to raise awareness on the issue of antibiotics consumption. COVID-19 has been everyone’s focus since the beginning of 2020, and rightly so. However, despite the still ongoing pandemic, we cannot afford to neglect antimicrobial resistance. The ECDC estimates that each year, more than […]

The European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) is an annual event set up by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in 2008. The initiative is linked to the World Health Organisation’s antibiotics awareness week, which runs each year from 13-19 November. The EEAD aims to increase awareness of European and global antimicrobial resistance and to […]

Delivering on a key action from the EU Strategy on COVID-19 Therapeutics, on October 22, the Commission established a portfolio of 10 potential COVID-19 therapeutics. The list established is based on independent scientific advice, and focuses on COVID-19 treatment candidates that are likely to be authorised and therefore available on the European market soon. These […]

Continuity is a core value of primary care. McWhinney described continuity as an implicit contract between a patient and a GP, who then takes personal responsibility for the patient’s medical needs.1,2 Continuity is not limited by the type of disease and bridges episodes of various illnesses. Greater continuity with a primary care physician has been shown […]

On October 4, EMA’s human medicines committee (CHMP) has concluded that an extra dose of the COVID-19 vaccines Comirnaty (BioNTech/Pfizer) and Spikevax (Moderna) may be given to people with severely weakened immune systems, at least 28 days after their second dose. The recommendation comes after studies showed that an extra dose of these vaccines increased the ability to […]

On September 27, as part of  the European Health Union, the Commission published a public consultation on the revision of the EU’s pharmaceutical legislation. This is the latest step towards an ambitious reform as announced in the Pharmaceutical Strategy for Europe, adopted in November 2020. The consultation will be open until December 21. Since the adoption […]

On September 16, the European Commission launched the European Health Emergency preparedness and Response Authority (HERA) to prevent, detect, and rapidly respond to health emergencies. HERA was designed to anticipate threats and potential health crises, through intelligence gathering and building the necessary response capacities. When an emergency hits, HERA will ensure the development, production and […]

On 14 and 15 September, the Transatlantic Taskforce on Antimicrobial Resistance (TATFAR) will have its Conference, hosted by the European Commission, to strengthen partnerships in the fight against AMR. The meeting, to be held virtually will bring together over 250 representatives and facilitators from the EU, USA, Canada, Norway and the United Kingdom, along with the […]

More than 200 health journals have called on governments to take emergency action to tackle the “catastrophic harm to health” from climate change. The joint call reinforces the need for an emergency action to limit global temperature increases, restore biodiversity, and protect health The joint editorial says that while recent targets to reduce emissions and […]