In this Winter Newsflash, we are excited to share highlights of EAN activities at ESCAIDE 2025 in Warsaw and introduce the newly appointed EAN Board members.
Previous editions of the newsflash are now also stored on our new website.
We are delighted to welcome the new members of the EAN Board!
Alberto Mateo Urdiales
President
Joana Neto
Secretary
Natalie Fischer
Tresurer
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Sara Mazzilli
General Member
Valeska Laisnez
Co-opted Member
We would also like to extend our sincere thanks to the outgoing Board members, Ioannis Karagiannis (President), Camille Jacqueline (Secretary), Soledad Colombe (Treasurer), and Bojana Mahmutović (Co-opted member), for their dedication and contributions to the work and achievements of the EAN Board in the past two years.
EAN BarCamp 2025
The EAN-organized BarCamp session once again provided a lively, participant-driven space for exchange. Several key themes were voted on by the audience and served as starting points for discussion. This year’s BarCamp enabled rich and thoughtful exchanges on challenges affecting not only field epidemiology and microbiology, but also the broader working environment.
Discussions on the search for efficiency and current resource constraints addressed the administrative burden in day-to-day work, the effects of funding cuts and uncertainty, and the role of ownership and prioritization.
A core discussion centered on the meaning and value of field epidemiologynowadays, reflecting on how it has evolved in a globalized world shaped by rapid technological change.
Finally, participants chose to address staying motivated in difficult times, sharing perspectives and practical recommendations drawn from their own experiences.
As in last year’s bar camp, the role of artificial intelligence was discussed as a cross cutting issue at several points.
We sincerely thank all participants for their valuable and highly engaged contributions to this session, truly curated by participants for participants. We look forward to continuing these important conversations at next year’s BarCamp!
Congratulations to the winners of best oral presentation and the EAN photo contest!
Roberto Croci
Best oral presentation
Influenza vaccination attenuates acute myocardial infarction and stroke risk following influenza infection: a registry-based, self-controlled case series study, Denmark, 2014- 2025
This aerial photograph of the Bentiu refugee camp in South Sudan shows the camp’s organized grid of sectors, which houses over 300,000 displaced individuals. As a field epidemiologist with Médecins Sans Frontières, I view this grid as more than just a layout, I see it as a tool for managing public health. The division of the camp helps identify areas where infectious disease outbreaks occur, enabling rapid intervention and containment. The photo was taken at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a time when the world’s attention was focused on a global health crisis. But for the people in this camp, the pandemic was just one of many overwhelming challenges they faced. Amidst the ongoing displacement, inadequate healthcare, and scarce resources, their daily struggle for survival far outweighed any concerns about COVID-19. For me, this image reveals both the scale of human suffering and the resilience required to endure it. It’s a reminder that the most urgent problems are often not the ones we hear about in the news, and that humanitarian work is crucial in addressing the often invisible needs of those displaced by conflict.
EAN Career Compass 2025
The EAN Career Compass 2025 was an interactive session that attracted strong interest from early-career and experienced public health professionals. The event was designed as an open and dynamic discussion, with very active audience participation.
The panel brought together speakers with diverse professional backgrounds and roles across public health practice, training, and research. Participants included Ewout Fanoy, medical doctor and epidemiologist in regional public health services; Justine Schaeffer, microbiologist involved in outbreak investigation and control; Louise Coole, Director of the UK field epidemiology training programme; Steen Ethelberg, senior epidemiologist and professor; and Kassiani Mellou, head of the Greek data management directorate.
Overall, the Career Compass 2025 successfully connected junior and senior professionals, encouraged thoughtful discussion on career paths, and provided practical inspiration for navigating diverse career pathways within the public health field.
Be part of the community: ways to stay involved and connected!
Do what you love to do!
You'd like to get active on a project for our community? An experience you'd like to share or a topic you'd like to educate on? Please reach out to us at [email protected] if you'd like to discuss your idea and want our support. We are available to help you bringing your ideas come to life.
Support us with (small) tasks
Our community lives from all of us and the capacities of the volunteer board alone are limited. Every now and then, we may reach out to ask for your help on specific tasks or activities to get the best out of it for all of us. Of course, feel free to reach out proactively to see how you can help.
Activate your membership
Many benefits are lined up for active members of the network (GOARN requests of assistance, bulletins, discounts on mini-modules, access to specific ressources on our website...). You can activate your membership at anytime! The annual membership fee is now €40. There is a 5-year membership available at €180. Fellows in their first and second year of training are exempt from paying membership fees.
To activate or renew your membership, you can log in on the website. Open your profile and click on the button "Contribute now" and follow the steps. Alternatively, you can transfer the membership fee to the following Qonto account. Please indicate your name and membership year as reference in the bank transfer and also send an email to [email protected] with a copy of the receipt/invoice to inform us about your payment (sometimes names are not correctly transmitted with the transfer).
Account Holder: E.A.N. (EUROPEAN PROGRAMME FOR INTERVENTION EPIDEMIOLOGY TRAINING ALUMNI NETWORK)
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