News

World Immunization Week – celebrated in the last week of April – aims to promote the use of vaccines to protect people of all ages against disease.
Global Vaccine Action Plan (GVAP) aims to prevent millions of deaths from vaccine-preventable diseases by 2020 through universal access to immunization. In order for everyone, everywhere to survive and thrive, countries must make more concerted efforts to reach GVAP goals by 2020.

Immunization is also a fundamental strategy in achieving other health priorities, from controlling viral hepatitis, to curbing antimicrobial resistance, to providing a platform for adolescent health and improving antenatal and newborn care.

Read more regarding the world immunization week here.

The CLEO is pleased to announce the Summer Internship Program in the following areas:
• Systematic Review/Meta-analysis in infectious diseases
• Infection control
• Antibiotic resistance/stewardship
• Vaccines

Internships are available for both undergraduate and graduate students and cover a minimum of eight weeks, with students generally arriving at CLEO in May or June.

Prospective candidates must apply via email to Stefania Maistreli at info@cleoresearch.org. All applicants must state the area of the internship in the subject line of the email.

Applicants should submit:
• a resume that details their relevant work and educational experiences
• a cover letter stating their interests, qualifications and the internship they are applying for
• the names and contact information for two references.

The application deadline is Monday, April 24nd at 12pm. Candidates will be informed of their selection by May 1st.

At the end of the summer program, students are required to prepare, at least, an abstract for a national or an international meeting.

An EU-wide survey estimated that 4.2 million healthcare-associated infections occur every year in European long-term care facilities, compared to an estimated 3.5 million occurring in European acute care hospitals, and that on any given day, over 116 400 residents have at least one active healthcare-associated infection.

These data come from a project called HALT-2 that conducted a survey with information on 77 264 residents in 1 181 long-term care facilities in 19 European countries between April and May 2013. This project was developed by ECDC together with a consortium led by the Scientific Institute of Public Health in Brussels.
Furthermore, 46% of the participating facilities had not implemented any of the ten key elements of good antimicrobial stewardship and one in ten centres did not have access to infection prevention and control advice or committee.
Currently, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is coordinating the HALT-3 survey, which results will be published in 2018. Pete Kinross, an expert in surveillance of healthcare-associated infections at the ECDC, pointed out: “these surveys are very relevant, as they serve as a tool to increase awareness and prevention of healthcare-associated infections in these long-term care facilities at the local, national and European level”.

Read more here

The Scientific Symposium ‘Building Trans-atlanting Bridges in Pediatric Hematology-Oncology’, jointly organised by the ‘Aghia Sophia’ Children’s Hospital / “ELPIDA” Association of Friends of Children with Cancer, Greece and the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, USA, was held at the NJV Athens Plaza Hotel on April 21st-22nd , 2017.
During this symposium, the main aspects of Pediatric Oncology were covered, combining both the time-validated approaches and knowledge, along with all the new developments, like the CAR-Tcells technology.

Distinguished scientists in the field have been invited in the faculty, ensuring a high quality programme and a stimulating scientific dialogue. Among the guests were Prof. Theoklis Zaoutis, CLEO’s Scientific Director and Chief of the Infectious Diseases Division of the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP), Prof. Susan Coffin, CLEO’s Associate Scientific Director and Associate Chief of the Infectious Diseases Division of the CHOP, and Cand. PhD John Kopsidas, CLEO’s Infection Preventionist.