Österreichische Agentur für Gesundheit und Ernährungssicherheit - EPIET/EUPHEM

EPIET site: Institute for Surveillance and Infectious Disease Epidemiology, AGES

Contact: Dr Ziad El-Khatib (Training site since 2006)

EUPHEM site: Department of Clinical Molecular Biology, AGES 

Contact: PD Dr Werner Ruppitsch (Training site since 2017)

Supervisors

EPIET:

Main supervisor: Dr Ziad El-Khatib, MSc, EMBA (ziad.el-khatib@ages.at)

Co-supervisor: Ms Sabine Maritschnik, MPH, RD (sabine.maritschnik@ages.at)

Institute for Surveillance and Infectious Disease Epidemiology

EUPHEM:

Main supervisor: PD Dr Werner Ruppitsch, Senior Scientist

Department of Clinical Molecular Biology, AGES (werner.ruppitsch@ages.at)

Co-supervisor: Dr Adriana Cabal Rosel

Department of Clinical Molecular Biology, AGES (adriana.cabal-rosel@ages.at)

Epidemiology co-supervisor: Dr Andreas Reich (andreas-sebastian.reich@ages.at)

Head of the Division of Public Health: Dr Bernhard Benka, MSc (berhard.benka@ages.at)

Organisation

The Austrian Agency for Health and Food Safety (AGES) was established on 1 June 2002. AGES plays an important role in ensuring the safety and well-being of the Austrian population, by working across a broad range of potential risks to public health. As a government-owned organisation, it is administered by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Social Affairs, Health, Care and Consumer Protection (BMSGPK) and the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management (BML).

AGES provides crucial support to these ministries and two subordinate federal agencies under them, in various issues concerning public health, animal health, food safety, medical device and drug safety, and consumer protection along the entire food chain. Its primary objective, as outlined in Article 8 of the Austrian Health and Food Safety Act (GESC), is to provide impartial scientific expertise and communicate relevant scientific knowledge.

AGES carries out a diverse range of activities related to the regulation and control of agricultural supplies. This includes the comprehensive registration and monitoring of agricultural components, including seeds, plant-protection products, and feedstuffs. The organisation conducts food inspections aimed at preventing and managing the spread of animal diseases as well as infectious diseases in humans. Furthermore, AGES is responsible for the supervision and registration of pharmaceuticals and medical products. By adopting an interdisciplinary approach, AGES provides diverse, scientifically robust expertise to identify, evaluate and effectively communicate health risks. As a leading organisation with expertise in health and food safety, AGES also extensively participates in national and international networks. By providing scientific expertise, AGES contributes to risk mitigation, identification and communication of health risks, and provides recommendations to its shareholder ministries, BMSGPK and BML.

EPIET and EUPHEM training sites

Both the Institute for Surveillance and Infectious Disease Epidemiology, and the Department of Clinical Molecular Biology are part of the Division of Public Health (Head: Dr Bernhard Benka) at AGES. The training sites and locations in Austria provide numerous opportunities in the field of epidemiology and molecular epidemiology, specifically,  the control and prevention of infectious diseases.

EPIET

The Institute for Surveillance and Infectious Disease Epidemiology plays a crucial role in monitoring, analysing, and responding to notifiable diseases in Austria. Therefore, EPIET Fellows would potentially be able to participate in a variety of training activities to develop their knowledge and skills. A few examples of training opportunities are listed below:

• Epidemiology and disease surveillance: Fellows are engaged in the monitoring and interpretation of surveillance data to ensure high data quality for all notifiable diseases in Austria. This includes communication with the local public health authorities and providing feedback for training opportunities.
• Outbreak investigation: Fellows learn about outbreak detection, case identification, outbreak management, and control strategies.
• Close collaboration with national reference laboratories: Fellows perform evaluations and help implement improved reporting and coverage of infectious diseases as well as the control of communicable diseases. A total of 21 national reference laboratories for mandatory notifiable diseases are located at AGES.
• Data analysis and interpretation: Fellows help perform data analysis and interpretation, by applying biostatistical methods to understand disease patterns and perform various research studies such as: a) sample size calculation, b) selection procedure, c) statistical significance tests, d) regression analysis modelling, e) standardisation methods, f) survival analysis, g) spatial analysis (ArcGIS, RegioGraph), and h) time series analysis.
• Research opportunities: Fellows participate in the design of the study protocol, conduct analysis, interpretation, write manuscripts, and contribute to publications of epidemiological studies in international peer-reviewed scientific journals.
• Establish professional collaborations: Fellows enhance their professional development and leadership skills through regularly attending trainings and conferences with national and international organisations, research institutions and other public health agencies to share information and expertise as well as to stay updated with the latest advancements in the field.
• Training and education in intervention epidemiology: Fellows establish collaborations with universities and organisations in Austria to provide training on various topics related to infection prevention and improvement of the Austrian reporting system for notifiable diseases.

EUPHEM

The Department of Clinical Molecular Biology provides training which includes the following activities:

• genomic surveillance of bacterial pathogens
• conducting diagnostic testing
• performing examinations and evaluations of various techniques
• providing laboratory capacities during crises and emergency situation
• conducting research to improve the identification of communicable diseases in accordance with the current legal requirements.

The molecular tool most widely used at AGES presently is whole genome sequencing (WGS). WGS is used for strain identification and pathogen typing in surveillance and outbreak investigation settings, but also in the context of clinical diagnosis and research projects.  Sequence data analysis with diverse bioinformatics software tools is performed at the department in collaboration with three bioinformaticians available at AGES. In addition, bio-safety-level 3 (BSL-3) laboratory training and various other laboratory activities, such as external quality assessments, are part of the routine work.

Additional training locations

In addition to the two main training sites at AGES, the Austrian EPIET and EUPHEM training programmes are also conducted at the following locations:

• Institute for Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, at AGES in Graz, Styria (Head: PD Dr Burkhard Springer), within the Division of Public Health (Head: Dr Bernhard Benka)
• Institute for Veterinary Disease Control in the Division of Animal Health, at AGES in Mödling, Lower Austria (Head: Univ.-Prof Dr Friedrich Schmoll)
• Institute for Hygiene and Medical Microbiology, at the Medical University of Innsbruck, Tyrol (Head: Univ Prof Dr Cornelia Lass-Flörl)
• Diagnostic and Research Institute of Hygiene, Microbiology and Environmental Medicine, Medical University of Graz, Styria (Head: Univ Prof Dr Ivo Steinmetz)
• National Reference Center for Surveillance of Nosocomial Infections (NRZ), Institute for Hygiene, Microbiology and Tropical Medicine, Ordensklinikum Linz Elisabethinen, Upper Austria (Head: Univ Prof Dr Petra Apfalter)
• MEDILAB, Teaching Laboratory, of the Paracelsus Medical Private University, Salzburg, (PD Dr. Markus Hell)
• Center for Pathophysiology, Infectiology and Immunology, of the Medical University of Vienna, Vienna (Director: Univ Prof Dr Ursula Wiedermann-Schmidt).

The training sites offer teaching and various opportunities in the field of epidemiology and molecular epidemiology applied to control of infectious diseases and prevention of viral, bacterial and fungal pathogens and parasites.

Language requirements

English, German (optional)

Training history

Number of EPIET Fellows trained at the institute: 12 + one current MS-Track

Number of EPIET alumni working at the institute: two

Number of EUPHEM alumni working at the institute: one

Number of EUPHEM fellows trained at institute: three fellows since September 2022