Public health: network for epidemiological surveillance and control of communicable diseases in the European Community EWRS

In adopting the report by Mr Christian CABROL (UPE, FR) Parliament approved the joint text, following the agreement reached in the conciliation committee on a European surveillance network for communicable diseases. The most controversial point was to know if the network should include 'Eurocentres' which was taken up at the end of the negotiation (establishment of a network ensuring permanent communication between the Commission and the national structures). The network thus established should enable effective and coordinated action to be taken in the event of epidemics or outbreaks of communicable diseases in a Community without internal frontiers. It would not be restricted to the transmission of data concerning surveillance. The Commission would coordinate the network in collaboration with the Member States. The diseases in question included sexually-transmitted diseases, pollution-related diseases, nosocomial diseases, Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease, yellow fever, cholera, plague, rabies, typhus fever, viral haemorrhagic fever and malaria. Other amendments included in the agreement covered the incorporation of an early warning system in this Community network and the need to use consistent definitions and appropriate technologies. �