Vastuskiri

To: ECDC National Focal Points (NFPs) for Antimicrobial Resistance (AMR); NFPs for Microbiology; NFPs for AMR Observers; NFPs for Microbiology Observers; Operational Contact Points for Microbiology - Antimicrobial-resistant isolates (AMRISO); Contact Points for Operations (CPO) for Microbiology - AMRISO; EARS-Net Disease Network Coordination Committee Members and Observers; Participants from Western Balkan countries and Türkiye at the ECDC EURGen-Net network meeting (DPR179; 29–30/11/2023). Cc: National Coordinators in Coordinating Competent Bodies; National Correspondents; ECDC ARHAI, ECDC Microbiology, ECDC European and International Relations.

Dear colleagues,

As announced at the ECDC EURGen-Net network meeting on 29–30 November 2023, ECDC will establish an Expert Group for microbiological input to the ‘ECDC survey of carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii (CRAb), 2024/2025’ (see * and the email below).

On 15 – 16 February 2024, ECDC will consult the ECDC Expert Directory to identify 8–15 Expert Group members. We hope that anyone interested in being part of the Expert Group registers with that Directory before then (URL: https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/about-ecdc/work-ecdc/external-experts). Any expert can register. It can take 5–10 minutes. Please forward this email to potentially interested colleagues.

For transparency, we have specified our search terms and selection process below this email**. If you registered in the Directory previously, we recommend that you click on the hyperlink above, to verify that your registered skills and competencies, and CV, are up-to-date.

The scope and purpose of the Expert Group for the CRAb survey is to provide advice to ECDC:

1. Support production of a laboratory manual to accompany the ECDC CRAb survey protocol.
   This will include (A) definition of the included species for this survey of ≤ 37 European countries; (B) specifying the best practice to prepare and send isolates and DNA; (C) providing options for the use/incorporation of nationally generated, and centrally-generated phenotypic AST data.

N.B. This will be an update of the laboratory manual for the ECDC CCRE survey, 2019. It will be shorter, as it does not include methods for double disk synergy assays, colistin AST and resistance gene specific PCRs.  The 2025 survey protocol does not include a request for nationally generated WGS data, as sequencing will be performed centrally to promote data comparability.

2. Minor: provide input relevant to the survey protocol itself. This minor activity will ensure consistency with the laboratory manual.  

N.B. It will not include major input to the survey design, because that will occur through consultation with all eligible countries, by email and during meetings (see the email below).

3. Opportunity to provide input to draft analyses in 2024/2025. Those who meet ICJME criteria will be included in a named author list in manuscript(s) for a peer-reviewed journal.

We envisage that the workload for the Group will roughly the same in 2024 (before the survey) and in 2025/2026 (during the final stages):

• 0.5–2 days of virtual meetings (including 0.25 days during the last week of March 2024); and

• 2 (max 3) email consultations on draft documents.

The timeline for the preparations is shown in the email below. The first meeting of the Expert Group is scheduled for at 13:00–16:00 CET on 26 March 2024.  

If you have any questions about the above, please email To: [email protected], with Cc: [email protected].

FYI, ECDC can use the Expert Directory to identify people for a broad variety of activities, based on the competencies and preferences of the expert. For more information, please consult the Expert Directory webpage, and particularly its Q&A section.

Best wishes,
Pete Kinross (ECDC ARHAI) and Andreas Hoefer (ECDC Microbiology)

* The primary objective of the ‘ECDC CRAb survey 2024/2025’ is to describe the occurrence and geographic distribution of CRAb strains, and/or transmissible resistance/genetic elements of critical public health importance within CRAb strains, among patients in acute care hospitals in Europe, to inform prevention and control activities. The survey period is October 2024–June 2025.

** The selection process will follow these steps:

1.            We will review the uploaded CVs of experts who meet the criteria below. The list of eligible terms competencies, professions and skills is purposefully broad.

2.            We will identify roughly 15 people to invite in the first instance (for ‘first refusal’), based on the relevance of their expertise to the scope of the Expert Group specified above. We will specifically seek to identify experts from a diverse group of countries and expert stakeholder groups, such as EUCAST.

3.            We will review the (obligatory) Declarations of Interest that are uploaded to the Directory for potential Conflicts of Interest, to ensure appropriate mitigation, according to the ECDC policy on scientific integrity and independence.

4.            Subsequently, if fewer than 8 people accept, we will invite more people, in subsequent rounds, until we have 8–15 Expert Group members.

Criteria for ECDC to identify potential members of the Expert Group for ECDC CRAb survey in the ECDC Expert Directory

ECDC NORMAL