EAPM - Înregistrare deschisă: „Recrutarea serologiei pentru lupta îndelungată împotriva pandemiilor” 

Greetings all! Registration is open for the European Alliance for Personalised Medicine (EAPM) ‘virtual’ event, held online next week, on 3 February, 9h30 – 11h CET. To perfectly match the less-than-perfect times we find ourselves in, the round table is entitled 'Recruiting serology to the long fight ahead against pandemics', scrie directorul executiv al EAPM Dr. Denis Horgan.

Please find the link to register aici iar agenda este aici.

Europe's ability to respond effectively to health threats has already been called into question by the coronavirus pandemic. Heroic collaboration between researchers and policymakers has made the first vaccines available at record speed, but Europe still stands before a major challenge that goes way beyond the current COVID crisis. 

Identificarea mai precisă a naturii virusului – și a oricărei variante mutante a acestuia – precum și o precizie mai mare asupra eficacității vaccinurilor și măsurători ale imunității sunt încă necesare urgent. 

The mechanisms are available to bring that precision and clarification. Notably, serology testing can help confirm the efficacy of vaccination, and can be used to establish a threshold for protection or immunity. It can also confirm an initial antibody response from vaccination, and provide subsequent tracking of antibody levels at regular intervals.

A key role of the round table is to bring together experts to agree policies by consensus and take our conclusions to policy makers. And this time, we go even further into the realm of expertise, given the huge crisis that we are all facing.

Deci, care sunt printre subiectele de pe masă?

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The confident but chilling scientific consensus is that the next decades will bring further and more virulent pandemics that threaten disruption and death on an even greater scale than the current outbreak. 

And while the hope is that vaccines now being created in extremis will overcome the immediate danger, Europe – and the world – can no longer afford to rely on hasty improvisation. The harsh reality is that much of the current vaccine development is shooting in the dark at moving targets. 

As the first vaccines reach the general public at the start of 2021, it is still unknown for how long vaccination confers immunity (and, topically, how much flexibility in altering dosage schedules is justified), how it affects different population groups, or to what extent vaccination impedes transmission. 

As the European Medicines Agency observes in reporting on its first positive opinion on a COVID vaccine, Comirnaty: "It is not currently known how long protection given by Comirnaty lasts. The people vaccinated in the clinical trial will continue to be followed for 2 years to gather more information on the duration of protection." And: "There were not enough data from the trial to conclude on how well Comirnaty works for people who have already had COVID-19."  Similarly: "The impact of vaccination with Comirnaty on the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 virus in the community is not yet known. It is not yet known how much vaccinated people may still be able to carry and spread the virus."

The objective of this masa rotunda is to assess the factors, understand the need and frame the discussion for Serology testing for SARS-CoV-2 at a country level by engaging with experts. 

A key target audience is decision making (public health professionals, public health institutes, medical authorities as WHO Europe, and EMA) so as to understand the barriers and enablers so that serology testing in vaccination surveillance systems can be adopted. 

Questions to be addressed:

• Strategii de testare: limitate vs. sistematice - Este nevoie de revizuire a recomandărilor anterioare? 

•  Should approaches to testing adapt to different  tipuri de vaccinuri, also in view of progressively lifting containment measures? 

• Care este stadiul testelor serologice? Am putea/ar trebui să anticipăm recomandări înainte ca acestea să devină accesibile? 

The above are just an example of the huge topics, among many up for discussion on the day. So be sure to join us on 3 February, from 9h30 – 11h CET. Please find the link to register aici iar agenda este aici.

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