NIPH designated as an EU Reference Laboratory

The NIPH-led consortium will assist with protocols for virus characterisation, scientific advice, and technical support to the reference laboratories to ensure adequate and effective diagnostics and surveillance in the EU. Furthermore, the consortium will assist the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) with advice and technical support in the event of, for example, outbreaks. The activity mainly deals with hepatitis A and hepatitis E viruses, but may include other food- and water-borne viruses if necessary.

– It is fun to be designated. All together, we are an experienced and professional consortium, and many have worked in the field for many years, so we look forward to taking on this task, says Section leader Kathrine Stene-Johansen at NIPH.

– We are particularly interested in improving the methodology and tools used in microbiological surveillance for outbreak investigation of hepatitis A virus, which, in the long term we also hope to use for hepatitis E virus. However, this depends on allocated funding from the EU, she says.

– Before we begin operating by the end of 2025, we will, in close collaboration with ECDC, further define and plan for the various deliveries from the consortium, says Stene-Johansen.

NIPH won the designation by competitive process

ECDC is responsible for the surveillance of infectious diseases in the EU/EEA area. To that end, the ECDC has established and coordinates several disease-specific networks. In 2023, a scheme of European public health reference laboratories (EURLs) was established, funded by the EU.

The EURLs for various viruses/bacteria/parasites are announced intermittently, and EU/EEA member states are given the opportunity to apply. This summer, NIPH applied for one of the advertised EURLs, as the leader of a consortium with the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) in the Netherlands and Regensburg University Medical Center in Germany. The NIPH-led consortium won the competition and on 29 November they were officially designated as the EURL for food- and waterborne viruses.