Table 2.

Overview of ECDC- supported laboratory external quality assessments schemes by Disease Programme (DP), target pathogen, testing area and year, 2010–2016.

DPa	Pathogen(s)	Testing area for assessmentc					Number of EQA exercises/yeard
		Detection	Typing	Virulence/resistance	AST	Reporting	2010	2011	2012	2013	2014	2015	2016
ARHAI	Enterococcus faecalis, E. faecium, E. coli, K. pneumoniae, P. aeruginosa, S. pneumoniae, S. aureus, Acinetobacter spp.b	×			×	×	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
	Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus		×			×	1
	Clostridium difficile		×			×		1		1	1
	Carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae			×		×				1
EVD	Hantavirus	×					1
	Yellow fever viruse	×					2
	Crimean Congo Hemorrhagic Fever Virus	×						1
	Tick-borne encephalitis virus	×						1
	West Nile fever viruse	×						2	1
	Rift valley fever virus	×							1
	Dengue virus	×								1
	Lassa virus	×								1
	Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus	×									1
	Chikungunya viruse	×									2
	Zika virus	×											1
IRV	Human influenza virusf	×			×	×	2			2		2
FWD	Salmonella enterica		×		×		2		1	1	2	1	1
	Shiga toxin-producing E. coli		×	×			2		1		2	1
	Listeria monocytogenes		×							2	1	1	1
	Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli				×						1		1
	variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob	×				×	1		1	1			1
	Legionella pneumophila	×	×				4	4	4	4		4
HSH	Neisseria gonorrhoeae				×	×	1	1	1	1	1	1	1
VPD	Corynebacterium diphtheriae	×	×				1		2	1
	Neisseria meningitidis	×	×		×			1	1		1		1
	Haemophilus influenzae	×	×	×				1	1		1		1
	Streptococcus pneumoniae	×	×		×		1		1		1		1
	Bordetella pertussis	×	×				1		2	1			1
TB	Mycobacterium tuberculosisg	×	×		×	×	2	2	1	2	2	2	2
Total							22	15	19	20	17	13	13

^aDP, ECDC Disease Programme; ARHAI, Antimicrobial Resistance and Healthcare-Associated Infections Programme; EVD, Emerging and Vector-borne Diseases Programme; IRV, Influenza and other Respiratory Viruses Programme; FWD, Food and Waterborne and zoonoses Diseases Programme; HSH, HIV, Sexually Transmitted Infections and viral Hepatitis Programme; VPD, Vaccine Preventable Diseases Programme; TB: Tuberculosis Programme.

^bEQA cover at least six pathogens included by EARS-Net and resistance phenotypes relevant to the current epidemiology in the EU/EEA.

^cDetection: diagnostic test (using culture, molecular, or serological methods) and/or pathogen species identification; Typing: serotyping, molecular, or WGS typing; Virulence/resistance: identification of genetic/phenotypic determinants; AST, Antimicrobial susceptibility testing; Reporting: data analysis and interpretation for reporting according to international/EU case definitions and standard nomenclature.

^dFor each pathogen, the number of exercises is dependent on the panel of strains/samples distributed.

^eFor these agents, one EQA focused on detection by PCR and another on serology.

^fFor influenza virus, one EQA focused on detection by PCR and virus culture with antigenic and genetic characterization and another EQA focused on antiviral susceptibility testing. In addition, WHO provided yearly EQA on PCR detection.

^gFor Mycobacterium tuberculosis, one EQA focused on conventional diagnostic tests and another on molecular typing.