Today the Commission adopted an Implementing Decision on the list of communicable diseases and related special health issues as well as relevant case definitions to be monitored through the EU’s epidemiological surveillance network.  

The new list includes communicable diseases that have recently emerged or re-emerged, such as Chikungunya, Dengue, Lyme neuroborreliosis and Zika infections and corresponding case definitions. The Decision also includes revised case definitions for several other communicable diseases and related health issues such as antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and healthcare associated infections (HAI). Moreover, the list of diseases and the list of case definitions are brought into line with the World Health Organisation nomenclature according to the International Statistical Classification of Diseases.

The regular updates, such as the one adopted today, are triggered by new scientific information, by evolving laboratory diagnostics and practices, and are based on the scientific advice by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).

Decision No 1082/2013/EU empowers the Commission to establish and update the list of communicable diseases and related special health issues to ensure their coverage by the epidemiological surveillance network. This network brings together the Commission, the ECDC and the competent authorities responsible at national level for epidemiological surveillance. The Commission also sets the case definitions concerning each communicable disease and related special health issue that Member States shall use when sharing and information with the epidemiological surveillance network to ensure comparability and compatibility of the collected data at Union level.

For more information:

• Commission Implementing Decision of 22 June 2018 updating the list of communicable diseases subject to epidemiological surveillance
• EU action on communicable diseases