Expert meeting on drug-related infectious diseases
Cited from Lucas Wiessing, Drugnet Europe  No. 44, November–December 2003

Experts from all current and future EU Member States met in Lisbon from 20–21 October for a meeting on drug-related infectious diseases. The general aim of the meeting was to investigate ways to improve the surveillance of blood-borne infections (hepatitis B and C, HIV) among injecting drug users (IDUs). 

Three complementary approaches were discussed at the meeting to improve current data availability, comparability and quality:

·         To make better use of the drug treatment system for surveillance purposes and for improving coverage of screening and access to antiviral treatment (this entails developing a core set of behavioural items and good practice guidelines);

·         To investigate the feasibility of collecting HCV test results from public health laboratories at EU level, using a very minimal core data set, and if possible, with recognition of first positive tests;

·         To develop an EU consensus protocol, or ‘tool-kit’, for new seroprevalence and incidence studies, and for providing a framework for combined data analyses of existing studies.

Despite limited resources, the EMCDDA, in collaboration with its partners, aims to develop these three areas through working groups composed of the meeting participants and other interested experts.

Progress in drug population surveys in the EU
Cited from Julián Vicente, Drugnet Europe No. 44, November–December 2003

Good-quality population surveys on drugs are a key source of information for assessing the drug situation and planning and evaluating national drug strategies. Recent positive developments in this area have been the launching of comparable national population surveys in some Member States, and the repeating of surveys in others, in order to help gain an insight into the prevalence, incidence and patterns of drug use in Europe.

The first prevalence survey of households in Ireland and Northern Ireland was carried out recently in line with criteria set by the EMCDDA’s key indicator on population surveys, developed in collaboration with a European network of national population surveys. …

The increased number of countries now conducting comparable population surveys means that we now have at our disposal an ever more comprehensive picture of the European drug situation. (Brigid Pike)

Drugnet  Europe

Drugnet Europeis the bimonthly newsletter of the European Monitoring Centre for Drugs and Drug Addiction (EMCDDA). The Lisbon-based EMCDDA is an autonomous agency of the European Union established in 1993 to provide the Community and its member states with ‘objective, reliable and comparable information’ on drugs and drug addiction. An electronic version of Drugnet Europe is available from the EMCDDA’s web site at www.emcdda.org