Action to prevent and control communicable diseases An action plan to prevent and control communicable diseases spreading through Europe has recently been decided on by the European Commission. The Decision, taken on 22 December 1999, is aimed at facilitating the integration of an existing Community network for diseases with ot... An action plan to prevent and control communicable diseases spreading through Europe has recently been decided on by the European Commission. The Decision, taken on 22 December 1999, is aimed at facilitating the integration of an existing Community network for diseases with other rapid alert networks set up at national or Community level and special issues to be covered by an early warning and response system. This system will report outbreaks of communicable diseases occurring in more than one Member State as well as spatial or temporal clustering of cases of disease of a similar type when there is a perceived risk of such clusters spreading. It will also announce the appearance or resurgence of a communicable disease or an infectious agent that needs to be contained. The new legislation on communicable diseases lays down procedures to be followed when an event has the potential to become a threat to public health, or is already know to be a definite threat. This includes how to provide information to the general public and professions concerned. The Decision also calls on the Member States to deliver an annual report on the events and procedures applied within the early warning and response system to the European Commission. This new legislation is aimed at complementing the work of the European Public Health Information network, one of whose functions is to act as the operating system for newly developed technologies in this field.
