Edastuskiri

Saatja: "ECDC respiratory viruses" <[email protected]> Teema: REMINDER: For Action: Vote for the New Representative to the Viral Respiratory Diseases Network Coordination Committee Kuupäev: 2025-10-08 08:06 Tähelepanu! Tegemist on väljastpoolt asutust saabunud kirjaga. Tundmatu saatja korral palume linke ja faile mitte avada. Dear colleagues, This is a kind reminder that the deadline for voting of the new DNCC representative is approaching. Deadline: 10 September 2025 Please cast your vote via the following link: <https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/DNCC_2025> EUSurvey - Survey Kind Regards Keti On Behalf of ECDC Respiratory Viruses Team European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Gustav III:s boulevard 40, 169 73 Solna, Sweden Phone +46 (0)8 58 60 10 00 www.ecdc.europa.eu Follow ECDC on: Classified as ECDC NORMAL  From: ECDC respiratory viruses Sent: 29 September 2025 11:32 Cc: ECDC Info <[email protected]> Subject: For Action: Vote for the New Representative to the Viral Respiratory Diseases Network Coordination Committee To: National Focal Points for Viral Respiratory Diseases (and Alternates); Operational Contact Points for COVID-19, Influenza and SARI CC: National Coordinators Dear National Focal Points and Operational Contact Points, Following the receipt of nominations for the replacement of a candidate to the 2024–2027 Viral Respiratory Diseases Network Coordination Committee (DNCC), all nominees have accepted their candidacy. It is now time to proceed with the election. It is recommended that both NFPs and OCPs are represented in the DNCC. Furthermore, according to the terms of reference, it is also recommended that the DNCC should aim for a balance between functional expertise, gender, and geography. The nominated NFPs and OCPs are as follows (please see attached for their personal statements): Country Representative Role Sweden AnnaSara Carnahan OCP for Epidemiology Denmark Hanne-Dorthe Emborg OCP for Epidemiology Belgium Laurane De Mot OCP for Epidemiology Italy Alberto Mateo Urdiales NFP Netherlands Rianne van Gageldonk NFP As we have more than one nominee, the final selection will be made through voting. The candidate with the majority of votes will be elected. For action: Please vote for the new DNCC representative via the following link: EUSurvey - Survey <https://ec.europa.eu/eusurvey/runner/DNCC_2025> Important Notes: * The link works best in Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, and Google Chrome browsers. * There is one vote per country, coordinated by the NFP. NFPs and OCPs are expected to consult before casting the vote. * Please consider functional expertise, gender, and geographical balance when voting. * Voting closes at 17:00 CET on 10 October 2025. If you experience any issues with the voting platform or have questions regarding the DNCC election, please do not hesitate to contact us. Kind Regards Keti On Behalf of ECDC Respiratory Viruses Team European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) Gustav III:s boulevard 40, 169 73 Solna, Sweden Phone +46 (0)8 58 60 10 00 www.ecdc.europa.eu Follow ECDC on: Confidentiality Notice If you are not the intended recipient of this message, you are hereby kindly requested, to, consecutively, refrain from disclosing its content to any third party, delete it and inform its sender of the erroneous transmittal. Personal statement for application as DNCC member My name is Laurane De Mot. I am a trained bioengineer, having completed my studies at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (Belgium), including a 6-month Erasmus exchange at the Università degli Studi di Milano (Italy), followed by an additional 6-month university program in biostatistics. I hold a PhD in the mathematical modelling of gene networks involved in embryonic development and stem cell biology, awarded by the Université Libre de Bruxelles with collaborations with the Université de Strasbourg (including one-year exchange) and the Université de Clermont-Ferrand (France). I then worked in the pharmaceutical sector for six years, including three years as a postdoctoral researcher in vaccine research at GSK Vaccines, in a project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. My research focused primarily on adjuvant science, particularly in the context of malaria and tuberculosis vaccines. My area of expertise was systems biology applied to immunology—specifically, the analysis of omics data to understand and predict immune responses to vaccination and infection in humans. As part of this work, I collaborated with the team of Bali Pulendran (then at Emory University, now at Stanford University) and spent several months working in the United States. I also worked closely with clinical study teams, whose samples and associated data we analyzed. When my postdoctoral research ended, I joined UCB, a pharmaceutical company specializing in immunology and neurology, where I applied systems biology approaches to the understanding of neurological diseases, primarily epilepsy. When COVID-19 emerged, I felt compelled to use my data analysis skills to contribute to managing the pandemic. I therefore joined Sciensano, the Belgian public health institute. I initially worked as a data manager and analyst in the team responsible for hospital-based COVID-19 surveillance. After one year, I became the head of that team, which later merged with the team previously in charge of influenza surveillance. I have been leading this merged and growing team for the past 1.5 years, which now includes eight people. Our team manages the Belgian SARI (Severe Acute Respiratory Infections) surveillance system, collecting data from various sentinel and non-sentinel sources to publish a weekly report and provide health authorities with ongoing assessments of the epidemiological situation related to respiratory infections. In addition, we monitor vaccine effectiveness at both the national level and through participation in VEBIS. Over the past year, we have focused particularly on analyzing the impact of nirsevimab on pediatric RSV. We are also involved in developing systems that can respond better and/or more rapidly in the event of a new pandemic. Finally, one team member is dedicated to preparing protocols and systems for responding to and monitoring potential human cases of zoonotic influenza. Although my experience in public health is relatively recent, I believe that my diverse background, current leadership role, and my position as NFP/OCP for Epidemiology (COVID- 19, Influenza, and SARI) make me a good candidate to join the DNCC. Thank you for considering my candidacy. Laurane De Mot Classified as ECDC NORMAL Rianne van Gageldonk-Lafeber Personal Statement My name is Rianne van Gageldonk-Lafeber (PhD). I’m an epidemiologist and head of the department for respiratory infections within the Centre for Infectious Disease Control (CIb) at the National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands. My team and I are responsible for the comprehensive surveillance of influenza, RSV, SARS-CoV-2, and other respiratory pathogens. This integrated approach includes using epidemiological, virological, molecular, and participatory surveillance data to produce a (complete) overview of the epidemiology of respiratory infections and pathogens. Each week, we publish an update of the respiratory surveillance data on our website (Actuele situatie luchtweginfecties | RIVM - in Dutch), providing actionable insights for both healthcare professionals and the general public. These reports inform stakeholders about (amongst others) the start of the annual influenza epidemic. In addition, the information is used to educate the public on hygiene measures and guide general advice for people with symptoms, such as staying at home when ill and to avoid contact with individuals who are at higher risk of severe illness from a respiratory infection. My department integrates data from multiple surveillance sources, including GP sentinel surveillance, laboratory surveillance, participatory surveillance (Infectieradar – in Dutch) and mortality monitoring (Monitoring sterftecijfers Nederland | RIVM.- in Dutch). In addition, we are actively working on establishing SARI surveillance in hospitals. As a first step, we now receive weekly data on the number of SARI-patients admitted at the ICU (Clearer overview of the severity of respiratory infections | RIVM). We recently, conducted an evaluation of the respiratory surveillance of influenza and RSV in the Netherlands. In this process, we focused on the objectives of surveillance in relation to public health actions (surveillance=data for action). We assessed the extent to which the collected data contributes to possible public health actions, which data sources are complementary, and what information is still missing. This aligns closely with the objective the ECDC working group, led by Nick Bundle, that was established because of the upcoming update of the guidance on respiratory virus surveillance in the EU/EEA. I am a member of this working group. Classified as ECDC NORMAL Curriculum Vitae A.B. (Rianne) van Gageldonk-Lafeber Work: address Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Surveillance National Institute of Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) PO Box 1 3720 BA Bilthoven, the Netherlands Telephone +31 6 1133952 E-mail [email protected] https://www.linkedin.com/in/riannevangageldonklafeber Education 2011 Ph.D. Vrije Universiteit (VU) Amsterdam. Thesis title: Enhancing surveillance for control of respiratory infections in the Netherlands (Ph.D. mentors prof. dr. F.G. Schellevis, prof. dr. M.A.B. van der Sande, and dr.ir. I.M. van der Lubben) Enhancing surveillance for control of respiratory infections in the Netherlands - Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam 1992-1996 Radboud University Nijmegen, Biomedical Sciences (specialisation: Epidemiology) Professional Positions 2020 – present Head department Respiratory Infections, Centre for Infectious Disease Epidemiology and Surveillance, RIVM. 2002 – 2020 (Senior) researcher/epidemiologist department Respiratory Infections 2019 – 2020 Programme coordinator, Centre for Population Screening, RIVM 1997-2002 Researcher, Immunology of Infectious Diseases and Vaccines, RIVM 1996-1997 Researcher department general practice, Utrecht University Selected (recent) publications • van Straten CGJI, Gaspersz J, de Keizer NF, van Werkhoven CH, van Gageldonk- Lafeber AB, de Lange DW, Dongelmans DA, Bakhshi-Raiez F, van Asten L. Towards Classified as ECDC NORMAL  robust real-time surveillance of severe acute respiratory infections: Exploring the potential of an existing national intensive care unit registry. Ann Epidemiol. 2025 Aug;108:47-55. doi: 10.1016/j.annepidem. • Eggink D, Kroneman A, Dingemans J, Goderski G, van den Brink S, Bagheri M, Lexmond P, Pronk M, van der Vries E, Germeraad E, Brandwagt D, Houben M, van Hooiveld M, van der Giessen J, van Gageldonk-Lafeber R, Fouchier R, Meijer A. Human infections with Eurasian avian-like swine influenza virus detected by coincidence via routine respiratory surveillance systems, the Netherlands, 2020 to 2023. Euro Surveill. 2025 May;30(19):2400662. doi: 10.2807/1560-7917. • Carstens G, Kozanli E, Bulsink K, McDonald SA, Elahi M, de Bakker J, Schipper M, van Gageldonk-Lafeber R, van den Hof S, van Hoek AJ, Eggink D. Co-infection dynamics of SARS-CoV-2 and respiratory viruses in the 2022/2023 respiratory season in the Netherlands. J Infect. 2025 Mar 21;90(5):106474. doi: 10.1016/j.jinf.2025.106474. • Smit PW, Eggink D, Paltansing S, Hooiveld M, van Gageldonk-Lafeber AB, Dunk D, Lekkerkerk S, Meijer A. Mycoplasma pneumoniae MLST detected in the upsurge of pneumonia during the 2023 to 2024 winter season in the Netherlands. Sci Rep. 2025 Feb 27;15(1):6985. doi: 10.1038/s41598-025-88990-6. • McDonald SA, Jan van Hoek A, Paolotti D, Hooiveld M, Meijer A, de Lange M; Infectieradar team; van Gageldonk-Lafeber A, Wallinga J. A statistical modelling approach for determining the cause of reported respiratory syndromes from internet-based participatory surveillance when influenza virus and SARS-CoV-2 are co-circulating. PLOS Digit Health. 2024 Dec 9;3(12):e0000655. doi: 10.1371/journal.pdig.0000655. • Keet MG, Boudewijns B, Jongenotter F, van Iersel S, van Werkhoven CH, van Gageldonk-Lafeber RB, Wisse BW, van Asten L. Association between work sick- leave absenteeism and SARS-CoV-2 notifications in the Netherlands during the COVID-19 epidemic. Eur J Public Health. 2024 Jun 7;34(3):497-504. doi: 10.1093/eurpub/ckae051. • den Boogert EM, de Lange MMA, Wielders CCH, Rietveld A; RIVM COVID-19 Surveillance and Epidemiology Team, Knol MJ, van Gageldonk-Lafeber AB. Incidence and severity of SARS-CoV-2 infection in former Q fever patients as compared to the Dutch population, 2020-2021. Epidemiol Infect. 2022 Jun 8;150:e116. doi: 10.1017/S0950268822001029. • Andeweg SP, Vennema H, Veldhuijzen I, Smorenburg N, Schmitz D, Zwagemaker F, van Gageldonk-Lafeber AB, Hahné SJM, Reusken C, Knol MJ, Eggink D. Elevated risk of infection with SARS-CoV-2 Beta, Gamma, and Delta variant compared to Alpha Classified as ECDC NORMAL  variant in vaccinated individuals. Sci Transl Med. 2022 Jul 21:eabn4338. doi: 10.1126/scitranslmed.abn4338. • Reukers DFM, van Boven M, Meijer A, Rots N, Reusken C, Roof I, van Gageldonk- Lafeber AB, van der Hoek W, van den Hof S. High Infection Secondary Attack Rates of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus 2 in Dutch Households Revealed by Dense Sampling. Clin Infect Dis. 2022 Jan 7;74(1):52-58. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciab237. • Van Asten L, Harmsen CN, Stoeldraijer L, Klinkenberg D, Teirlinck AC, de Lange MMA, Meijer A, van de Kassteele J, van Gageldonk-Lafeber AB, van den Hof S, van der Hoek W. Excess Deaths during Influenza and Coronavirus Disease and Infection- Fatality Rate for Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus , the Netherlands. Emerg Infect Dis. 2021 Feb;27(2):411-420. doi: 10.3201/eid2702.202999. Epub 2021 Jan 4. • Marbus SD, van der Hoek W, van Dissel JT, van Gageldonk-Lafeber AB. Experience of establishing severe acute respiratory surveillance in the Netherlands: Evaluation and challenges. Public Health Pract (Oxf). 2020 Nov;1:100014. doi: 10.1016/j.puhip.2020.100014. Epub 2020 Dec 22. Classified as ECDC NORMAL Personal statement: AnnaSara Carnahan AnnaSara Carnahan holds a Master degree in Public Health (MPH) from George Washington University in Washington, D.C. Ms. Carnahan has been working at the Public Health Agency of Sweden since 2011. Ms. Carnahan's expertise lies in the epidemiological surveillance of communicable diseases, with a focus on respiratory pathogens particularly influenza, COVID-19 and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV). Besides leading routine surveillance activities, she works with strategic questions regarding improvements to surveillance, as well as methods for monitoring and evaluation of public health interventions, and using data to inform public health policy. Ms. Carnahan also has experience with pandemic preparedness and response, both in applying lessons learnt from the 2009 pandemic and in work during and after the COVID-19 pandemic. She works in close collaboration with colleagues within epidemiology, microbiology, vaccinology, preparedness and communication in her daily work. Ms. Carnahan has contributed to scientific studies on participatory surveillance, influenza disease burden, surveillance results and methods, and more. The Public Health Agency of Sweden plays a central role in monitoring and responding to outbreaks, providing guidelines, and supporting evidence-based public health interventions in Sweden. It is also the National Influenza Centre (NIC) for Sweden and collaborates with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and the World Health Organisation (WHO) on a continual basis. Classified as ECDC NORMAL Personal statement: Hanne-Dorthe Emborg I am the Danish National Focal Point for viral respiratory diseases and the epidemiological Operational Contact Point for influenza, SARI, and COVID-19. Since 2010, I have worked extensively on the surveillance of respiratory infections in Denmark, and in 2023, I led the establishment of Denmark’s integrated surveillance system for COVID-19, influenza, RSV, and Mycoplasma pneumoniae. This role involves close collaboration with laboratories to interpret weekly data trends, with mathematical modelers to assess infection intensity and hospital admissions across pathogens, and with communication teams to present findings on the SSI homepage and public platforms, as well as to inform healthcare professionals and the media. The integrated surveillance system has significantly strengthened Denmark’s ability to monitor weekly infection and admission burdens, assess risks across age groups, and identify timely needs for prevention and control measures. Since 2013, I have led the national estimation of influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE) and contributed to COVID-19 VE studies during the pandemic My work also includes active participation in several European projects such as the I-MOVE, I-MOVE+, and VEBIS networks, as well as the ECDC-financed EHR-SARI project on surveillance of severe acute respiratory infections. I am eager to contribute my expertise in integrated surveillance, vaccine effectiveness, and international collaboration to the Disease Network Coordination Committee (DNCC). Best wishes Hanne-Dorthe Classified as ECDC NORMAL Personal Statement as VRD DNCC candidate– Alberto Mateo Urdiales I am an epidemiologist with over a decade of experience in public health, infectious disease surveillance and scientific research. My background includes a PhD in Epidemiology and Public Health, specialist training in Public Health, and completion of the EPIET fellowship. I currently work at the Italian Institute of Public Health (ISS), where I serve as the National Focal Point for Respiratory Viruses in Italy and lead multiple national and European projects on respiratory virus surveillance, vaccine effectiveness, and pandemic preparedness. I have extensive experience working with respiratory surveillance systems. I contributed to the establishment of the COVID-19 integrated surveillance in Italy and in the last years I have been focused in transforming the respiratory surveillance system into a more integrated, representative, comprehensive and sustainable system. Our vision is to have a system that goes beyond the epidemiological/microbiological division paradigm, which is based as much as possible in electronic health records and whose output can be easily translated into public health action. I also have a strong background in applied research and methodology, with over 70 peer review publications. I believe I could bring valuable expertise to the Viral Respiratory Diseases Network Coordination Committee (VRD DNCC). My strong theoretical background and my practical experience working with surveillance systems and applied research make me suitable to advise the ECDC on scientific matters related to respiratory viruses. I could also enrich the network by bringing the view of a large and decentralized country. I would be honoured to be part of the VRD DNCC as it would mean that I could have a more proactive role in improving surveillance at the European level. I am highly motivated by the opportunity as I think that surveillance systems in Europe should evolve in a common direction. Kind regards, Alberto Mateo Urdiales Classified as ECDC NORMAL