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The Baltic Network for Infection Control, Containment of Antibiotic Resistance, and Healthcare Epidemiology

The 7th Nordic-Baltic Congress on Infectious Diseases will be held at the Reval Hotel, Riga, Latvia, September 17-20, 2006. One of the main topics is antimicrobial resistance and nosocomial infection. Deadline for abstract submission is June 15.

To fight the spread of health care-associated infections which take a high toll in human lives and affect hundreds of millions of patients worldwide each year, WHO and its partners launched the Global Patient Safety Challenge with the theme "Clean Care is Safer Care" on Thursday, 13 October 2005. As part of the launch, the WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care (Advanced Draft) were made available.

Our Forum is moving to www.balticcare.org/forum. Old Forum will be closed soon.

WG2 members met in Tartu to discuss the BSI surveillance protocol. The final version of the protocol will be finished by the end of August and the surveillance will be started at the beginning of September. More news on the WG2 activities and the draft documents will be available on the Forum...

A group of BALTICCARE members visited Petrozavodsk (the capital of the Republic of Karelia). Several new network hospitals were identified. A draft SPRAT questionnaire was pilot-tested to evaluate IC programmes in the hospitals. Plans to develop a system of distance education in IC in the region were duscussed. More info will be available on the Forum soon...

You may see one of the pictures taken in Karelia on the riight. The original name of the sculpture shown on the picture is Wind. But if we have not had a logo for the BALTICCARE already, this picture could be the one, couldn't it?

Our report on the BALTICCARE meeting in Riga is published in EpiNorth (Vol. 6, No 2, 2005). You may want to download the whole issue: there is another very interesting paper on a prevalence study of antimicrobial use and hospital infections in Latvia.

The Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI) and The Swedish Strategic Programme for the Rational Use of Antimicrobial Agents and Surveillance of Resistance (STRAMA) have published a Report on Swedish Antibiotic Utilisation and Resistance in Human Medicine (SWEDRES 2004). The report (2 MB pdf) could be downloaded here. And both the SMI and STRAMA Websites provide a lot of useful information.

A group of BALTICCARE members visited several hospitals in North West Russia (Vologda and Pskov). The main purpose of the visit was to identify potential network members in the region. A willingness to participate in the BALTICCARE network was pronounced and our colleagues were of the opinion that this would assist in promoting infection control in their hospitals. It was also obvious that several of the clinics could contribute considerably to the BALTICCARE network sharing their experiences on different topics of infection control. More info will be available on the Forum soon...

CHICA-Canada in conjunction with the IFIC has created the Global Infection Control Website. Visit this site for a calendar of international conferences, educational courses and certification programs in infection control. This Global Website will continue to evolve and grow as IFIC approved information is added to the site. Please send information on the IC events in your countries to the BALTICCARE Forum.

The International Federation of Infection Control (IFIC) has granted full membership to two Latvian professional organizations involved with infection control: the Latvian Infection Control Society and the Preventive Medicine Society "Veselibas Laboratorija". The other IFIC members from the BALTICCARE countries are the Lithuanian Association of Hospital Infection Control and the Hospital Infection Control Society of St. Petersburg.

The kick-off meeting of the BALTICCARE workgroups went successfully on January 20-21, 2005 in Vilnius, Lithuania. All the workgroups have developed their action plans and presented them at the plenary session. It was decided that the next BALTICCARE meeting will be held on October 22-26, 2005, the venue for the meeting will be announced later (keep an eye on the News Page). The minutes from the meeting and links to the workgroups presentations are available on the BALTICCARE Forum. Our thanks are due to Rolanda Valinteliene and her colleagues for arranging an excellent meeting venue.

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		The 7th Nordic-Baltic Congress on Infectious Diseases will be held at the Reval Hotel, Riga, Latvia, September 17-20, 2006. One of the main topics is antimicrobial resistance and nosocomial infection. Deadline for abstract submission is June 15.

		The BALTICCARE Conference Infection Control: Sharing the Challenge was successfully held in Pskov, Russia, on March 16-18, 2006. 152 infection control professionals, microbiologists, and clinicians (not taking into account doctors and nurses from the Pskov regional hospital where the event took place) participated in the conference. 43 healthcare institutions of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Russia, and Sweden were presented. The conference materials are available for download here...

		European recommendations for the management of healthcare workers occupationally exposed to hepatitis B virus and hepatitis C virus were published in Eurosurveillance, Vol.10, Issue 10, 2005.

		To fight the spread of health care-associated infections which take a high toll in human lives and affect hundreds of millions of patients worldwide each year, WHO and its partners launched the Global Patient Safety Challenge with the theme "Clean Care is Safer Care" on Thursday, 13 October 2005. As part of the launch, the WHO Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care (Advanced Draft) were made available.

		A group of the BALTICCARE members (you may recognize them on the picture :-)) met in Istanbul to discuss the forthcoming conference in Pskov. They came to Istanbul to participate in the 6th Annual Congress of the International Federation of Infection Control. A poster presentation made by our Lithuanian colleagues is available on our Data page. Most presentations made at the congress will be available at the IFIC site soon.

		Our Forum is moving to www.balticcare.org/forum. Old Forum will be closed soon.

		WG2 members met in Tartu to discuss the BSI surveillance protocol. The final version of the protocol will be finished by the end of August and the surveillance will be started at the beginning of September. More news on the WG2 activities and the draft documents will be available on the Forum...

		A group of BALTICCARE members visited Petrozavodsk (the capital of the Republic of Karelia). Several new network hospitals were identified. A draft SPRAT questionnaire was pilot-tested to evaluate IC programmes in the hospitals. Plans to develop a system of distance education in IC in the region were duscussed. More info will be available on the Forum soon... You may see one of the pictures taken in Karelia on the riight. The original name of the sculpture shown on the picture is Wind. But if we have not had a logo for the BALTICCARE already, this picture could be the one, couldn't it?

		Our report on the BALTICCARE meeting in Riga is published in EpiNorth (Vol. 6, No 2, 2005). You may want to download the whole issue: there is another very interesting paper on a prevalence study of antimicrobial use and hospital infections in Latvia.

		The Swedish Institute for Infectious Disease Control (SMI) and The Swedish Strategic Programme for the Rational Use of Antimicrobial Agents and Surveillance of Resistance (STRAMA) have published a Report on Swedish Antibiotic Utilisation and Resistance in Human Medicine (SWEDRES 2004). The report (2 MB pdf) could be downloaded here. And both the SMI and STRAMA Websites provide a lot of useful information.

		A group of BALTICCARE members visited several hospitals in North West Russia (Vologda and Pskov). The main purpose of the visit was to identify potential network members in the region. A willingness to participate in the BALTICCARE network was pronounced and our colleagues were of the opinion that this would assist in promoting infection control in their hospitals. It was also obvious that several of the clinics could contribute considerably to the BALTICCARE network sharing their experiences on different topics of infection control. More info will be available on the Forum soon...

		CHICA-Canada in conjunction with the IFIC has created the Global Infection Control Website. Visit this site for a calendar of international conferences, educational courses and certification programs in infection control. This Global Website will continue to evolve and grow as IFIC approved information is added to the site. Please send information on the IC events in your countries to the BALTICCARE Forum.

		The International Federation of Infection Control (IFIC) has granted full membership to two Latvian professional organizations involved with infection control: the Latvian Infection Control Society and the Preventive Medicine Society "Veselibas Laboratorija". The other IFIC members from the BALTICCARE countries are the Lithuanian Association of Hospital Infection Control and the Hospital Infection Control Society of St. Petersburg.

		New organisation of infectious disease surveillance and control in the Russian Federation: in April, the regional Centres of State Sanitary and Epidemiological Surveillance and Control were divided into two organisations. Read more on the EpiNorth site...

		An interesting discussion on isolation precautions for patients with viral gastroenteritis has started on the BALTICCARE Forum. Don't miss it!

		The kick-off meeting of the BALTICCARE workgroups went successfully on January 20-21, 2005 in Vilnius, Lithuania. All the workgroups have developed their action plans and presented them at the plenary session. It was decided that the next BALTICCARE meeting will be held on October 22-26, 2005, the venue for the meeting will be announced later (keep an eye on the News Page). The minutes from the meeting and links to the workgroups presentations are available on the BALTICCARE Forum. Our thanks are due to Rolanda Valinteliene and her colleagues for arranging an excellent meeting venue.