The Dutch Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) has recently appointed Erasmus Medical Center to participate together with RIVM in the Joint Action 'Efficient response to highly dangerous and emerging pathogens at EU European Union (European Union ) level’: EMERGE. The joint action is launched under the EU Public Health Action Programme. This initiative has been established with co-financing from the EU and aims to facilitate the exchange of knowledge between EU Member States in the field of detection and control of emerging highly pathogenic pathogens.

The human population is confronted with emerging and re-emerging infectious pathogens that can cause serious crossborder outbreaks. A recent example is the Ebola outbreak requiring strong diagnostic, clinical, and public health measures in Europe and abroad in order to get this incident under control. The Joint Action EMERGE is in compliance with the European policy (Decision No 1082/2013/EU) where the need for an efficient, rapid and coordinated response to high threat pathogens is defined.

Efficient response to highly dangerous and emerging pathogens at EU level EMERGE comprises a European network of about 40 diagnostic laboratories focused on risk group 3 and 4 bacteria and viruses. This Joint Action is based on the previous Quandhip-project.