Subject: For action: Urgent reminder - Nomination of OCPs for entomology
From: "Country Cooperation" <[email-masked]>
To: "TA Info" <[email-masked]>, "Natalia Kerbo" <[email-masked]>
Cc: "EVD Admin" <[email-masked]>, "Jelena Rjabinina" <[email-masked]>,Kärt Sõber <[email-masked]>, "Maria Vikentjeva" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 29 May 2024 14:20:57 +0300

Tähelepanu! Tegemist on väljastpoolt asutust saabunud kirjaga. Tundmatu 
saatja korral palume linke ja faile mitte avada.

ECDC NORMAL

Dear National Coordinator,

Dear colleagues,

With reference to our request below, unfortunately, according to our 
Stakeholder Relation Management (SRM) system, since June 2023, we still have 
not received any OCP for entomology nominations from you.

This is becoming now urgent, as we are happy to announce that a new joint 
framework contract for medical and veterinary entomology (VectorNet) has 
been signed last week, and that the first One-Health VectorNet Entomological 
Network (OHVEN) annual meeting is planned for 29 – 31 October 2024. From 
each country, one OCP entomology, as well as the country’s member of EFSA’s 
Network for Veterinary Entomology (NVE) will be invited to participate in 
this annual meeting. With this new structure, we will discontinue the old 
VectorNet network, and we would no longer have a medical entomology expert 
participating from your country.

Therefore, could you please, at your earliest convenience, but before 26 
June 2024, nominate at least one OCP for entomology in the ECDC SRM system? 
Ideally, we would like to have experts in mosquitoes, ticks, and / or 
sandflies (please indicate their expertise in one or more of these vector 
groups). In case you have trouble identifying a suitable candidate for this 
role, we recommend nominating the previous entomology (VectorNet) VEN member 
listed furthest below in our original email from June 2023.

We realise that this person may not necessarily be affiliated to your 
national public health service, but, from ECDC’s side, we would like to 
emphasize that we have no requirements on affiliation, and also nominations 
with affiliation to e.g. academia are perfectly acceptable to us*. As this 
person is already in our system, we could assist you by adding the OCP for 
entomology role, once we have your confirmation.

*All OCPs will be required to make a declaration of interest.

Thank you for your attention to this matter.

Best regards,

ECDC EVD team & ECDC Executive Office/Governance

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

 <https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/> www.ecdc.europa.eu

Follow ECDC on:

 <http://www.facebook.com/ECDC.EU>

 <http://twitter.com/ecdc_eu>

 <http://www.linkedin.com/company/ecdc>

 <http://www.youtube.com/user/ECDCchannel>

From: Country Cooperation
Sent: Wednesday, June 21, 2023 9:27 AM
To: [email-masked]; [email-masked]
Cc: EVD Admin <[email-masked]>; [email-masked]; 
[email-masked]
Subject: For action: Nomination of OCPs for microbiology and OCPs for 
entomology

To: National Coordinators

Copy: National Coordinators Alternate, National Focal Points for Emerging 
and Vector-borne diseases

Reference: Nomination of OCPs for microbiology and OCPs for entomology

Dear National Coordinator,

Dear colleagues,

With a One Health approach, ECDC is aiming to strengthen the cohesion 
between the EVD network, 
<https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/about-us/partnerships-and-networks/disease-and-laboratory-networks/evd-labnet> 
EVD-LabNet and 
<https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/about-us/partnerships-and-networks/disease-and-laboratory-networks/vector-net> 
VectorNet network members. The EVD network is currently composed of the 
National Focal Points for EVDs and the OCP epidemiology and OCP microbiology 
for EVDs. EVD-LabNet is a network of virologists (from 65 laboratories) and 
VectorNet is a network of medical and veterinary entomologists that is 
jointly administered by ECDC and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). 
Both EVD-LabNet and VectorNet networks are coordinated by a contractor.

The EVD network members are defined by the CCB structure and are nominated 
by the National Coordinators; the EVD-LabNet and VectorNet networks are not 
described in the CCB structure and appointments of members of these two 
networks does not follow any official nomination procedure by National 
Coordinators.

To facilitate the integration of the EVD-LabNet and VectorNet network 
members into ECDC routine activities, we would like to formalise their 
roles: We would like you to consider, for your country, whether the current 
EVD-LabNet network members could become OCP microbiology and whether the 
current VectorNet network members could become OCP entomology, which is a 
newly created role. If you consider that they can be, please nominate them 
as OCPs according to the dedicated process in SRM. In addition, or instead, 
you may nominate further persons for these OCP roles. We note that, for the 
moment, EVD-LabNet network members and VectorNet network members who are not 
nominated to become OCPs will continue to be part of these respective 
networks.

OCPs microbiology

The role and responsibilities of the OCPs for microbiology are, as already 
described in the 
<https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/sites/default/files/documents/Coordinating-Competent-Bodies-Structures-Terms-of-reference-and-interactions_2023.pdf> 
CCB document:

*	Provide information about the current status of laboratory capacities for 
the specific disease / disease group and keep it up to date;
*	When available and legally possible, ensure flow of national laboratory 
surveillance data to OCP for TESSy interactions for upload to TESSy; or, 
Ensure upload of national laboratory data to TESSy according to permissions 
by NC, and/or NFP (when available and legally possible);
*	Encourage participation of the national reference centre (or laboratory 
with equivalent function) in EQA schemes sponsored by ECDC;
*	Collaborate closely with microbiology OCPs from other countries as 
specified by ECDC grant or service contracts, as required.
*	Otherwise interact with ECDC on issues related to the microbiology of 
specific pathogens as appropriate from a national context.

OCP microbiology are nominated for each of the following viral diseases: 
Arenavirus diseases, chikungunya virus disease, Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic 
fever, dengue, filovirus infection, hantavirus infection, Lyssavirus 
infection, mpox, Rift valley fever, smallpox, tick-borne encephalitis, West 
Nile virus infection, yellow fever and Zika virus infection.

In addition, OCP microbiology can be nominated for the following bacterial 
and parasitic diseases (not covered by EVD-LabNet): Lyme neuroborreliosis, 
malaria, plague, Q-fever and tularaemia.

OCPs entomology

The role and responsibilities of the OCPs for entomology are to:

*	Represent the public health sector as contact point for medical 
entomological matters in their country;
*	Provide entomological expertise to ECDC (and the European Food Safety 
Authority - EFSA) to assist in risk assessment activities;
*	Ensure the provision of vector surveillance data to maintain and continue 
development of a pan-European database on vector distribution, abundance and 
seasonality;
*	Facilitate the exchange of essential vector-borne diseases surveillance 
data (host, pathogen, vector) between data providers and ECDC (and EFSA);
*	Facilitate the communication between national health authorities and the 
local entomologists in their country.

You can find below the list of EVD-LabNet and VectorNet network members for 
your consideration. You are welcome to nominate other experts, as relevant. 
Please note that since VectorNet is a joint ECDC-EFSA network, some of the 
current network members are from the veterinary sector. However, OCP 
entomology should only represent the public health sector.  For each of 
these two roles, we suggest that you nominate from 1 to up to 3 individuals. 
You may decide to nominate the same person for several diseases/vector 
groups.

Please note that the nomination process should be done in SRM at your 
earliest convenience preferable by end of August 2023.

Country

City

First name

Surname

Organisation

Laboratory

Email

Estonia

Tallinn

Irina

Eero

Health Board (Terviseamet)

[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]>

EVD

Estonia

Entomology (VectorNet)

Contributor

Agriculture and Food Board

Kärt Jaarma

[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]>

Thank you very much for your kind attention to this matter. Should you have 
any queries please feel free to get in touch with us by email 
[email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> , and for 
assistance regarding the nominations in SRM by email 
<mailto:[email-masked]> 
[email-masked].

Yours sincerely,

ECDC EVD team & ECDC Executive Office/Governance

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

 <https://www.ecdc.europa.eu/> www.ecdc.europa.eu

Follow ECDC on:

 <http://www.facebook.com/ECDC.EU>

 <http://twitter.com/ecdc_eu>

 <http://www.linkedin.com/company/ecdc>

 <http://www.youtube.com/user/ECDCchannel>

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