PAW 2020: Early bird deadline is only open for 3 more days!

The 4th ESCMID Professional Affairs Workshop (PAW) will take place from 23 – 26 November 2020 in an innovative online format. The preliminary programme is online and consists of a wide range of topics in infectious diseases and clinical microbiology.

An exciting addition to the online format are the Daily Quizzes and Clinical Case Game, interactive activities with great prizes! Note that the Clinical Case Game is limited to the first 150 workshop registrants.

Registration is currently only 80€ for ESCMID members and 110€ for Non-members (€40 for participants from low-income countries). These early bird fees are valid until 23 October 2020, later normal registration fees will apply. Register Now!

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Two weeks left to submit your guidelines project!

IDWeek: 24-hour global simulcast of the latest COVID-19 scientific information

IDWeek is organizing a COVID-19 ‘Chasing the Sun’ 24-hour global simulcast of the latest COVID-19 scientific information from around the world, which will be made available free of charge, beginning Wednesday October 21, 2020, at 4:00 PM CEST (10:00 AM ET) and conclude the following day, Thursday Oct. 22, 2020 at 4:00 PM CEST (10:00 AM ET).

ESCMID is supporting the initiative by preparing a part of the scientific programme and by giving the European perspective on the pandemic on Thursday, October 22 from 10:45 AM to 03:00 PM CEST. The ESCMID programme has been prepared as a follow up of ECCVID.

Do not hesitate, please follow the link for further details!

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ESCMID Parity Commission: call for one new member!

ESCMID is happy to announce an open call for one ESCMID Parity Commission (PC) member position. Eligible for applying for the position are all ESCMID members who are sensitized in issues regarding parity and equity in the CM/ID professional area. Applicants with a record of active engagement in such subjects will be preferred. Important: In accordance with ESCMID policy, the PC aims to maintain geographic distribution among their members. For this reason, applications from France, Switzerland and Italy will not be accepted.

Apply now by sending a motivation letter (max 500 words) along with a short CV (max 2 pages) at science@escmid.org

For further details, please visit the Parity Commission webpage

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GARDP Webinar with EUCAST members - 21 October 2020

Don’t miss the next GARDP live webinar, taking place tomorrow morning (21 October 2020) at 09:00 CEST!

EUCAST Scientific Secretary John Turnidge (University of Adelaide, Australia) and Anouk Muller (Haaglanden Medical Centre, Netherlands) will discuss the data and methods needed to determine breakpoints for new antimicrobial agents.

The discussion will be moderated by EUCAST Technical Data Co-ordinator and ESCMID Past-President Gunnar Kahlmeter.

Sign up for free on the GARDP website.

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TAE Survey: The Role of ID and CM trainee in the COVID-19 Pandemic

The Training Association of ESCMID (TAE) has developed in collaboration with RéJIF (Network of young French ID physicians; Réseaux des Jeunes Infectiologues Français)" a new Survey in 2020 on a very up to date topic. All Young Scientists are requested to participate!

The objective of the TAE survey is to evaluate the role of trainees during the first wave of the pandemic, the impact on their training and their opinion on the role of infectious disease specialists and clinical microbiologists in the management of this crisis.

The results of this survey will be communicated during ECCMID 2021 in Vienna.

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CMI highlight: “A whole blood test to measure SARS-CoV-2 specific response in COVID-19 patients”

It was examined whether specific T-cell-responses to SARS-CoV-2 peptides can be detected in COVID-19 using a whole-blood experimental setting, which may be further explored as potential diagnostic tool. IFN-γ levels were evaluated after stimulating whole-blood with spike and remainder-antigens peptides megapools (MP) derived from SARS-CoV-2 sequences; several cytokines, chemokines and growth factors were also evaluated.

The results obtained showed the ability to detect T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2-specific peptides using a whole-blood-cytokine release assay. In particular, COVID-19-patients showed a significant high IFN-γ response, although both Th1 and Th2 cytokines were detected. Unrelated SARS-CoV-2-antigens induced a cytokine response independently of COVID-19 status, thus supporting the specificity of the immune response to viral-peptides. Moreover, the SARS-CoV-2-specific response was independent of the severity of the disease, symptoms onset and lymphocytes count. These results suggest that the whole-blood test for evaluating the T-cell response to SARS-CoV-2 may be a potential additional tool for further diagnostic and clinical deeper evaluations.

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