RIVM international newsletter 19 december 2023 |
|
International collaboration and projects |  | | On 25 October 2023, RIVM hosted a meeting in Bilthoven with partners of the International Cooperation for Health (IC4Health) consortium: the French Agency for Food, Environmental and Occupational Health & Safety (ANSES), Santé Publique France, the Norwegian Institute of Public Health (FHI) and the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA). The Director-Generals signed a Memorandum of Understanding to prolong their cooperation on public health and risk assessment. | | Since 2015, IC4Health has been a dynamic grouping of like-minded national agencies across Europe engaged in public health, risk assessment and health safety. The consortium aims to address health challenges where international cooperation and collaboration add value and benefit all parties through networking, sharing and exchanging, and strategic development. Topics addressed under IC4Health have an in-depth scientific and technical focus, bringing together experts from the institutes who can work together in various ways, such as through EU-funded research projects. | | Strengthening One Health surveillance in animals and the environment: Strong1H kick-off | Strong1H, a three-year project, was kicked off at RIVM on 10 November 2023. The project consortium met with the Ministries of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) and Agriculture, Nature and Food Quality (LNV) to discuss the scope and future planning of the project.
Within the EU4Health call for One Health surveillance of animals and the environment, the relevant European national authorities were asked to contribute to setting up and scaling up this animal health and environmental surveillance system, including the systematic, ongoing collection of data by EFSA. RIVM is coordinating this HaDEA direct grant as the competent authority in the Netherlands. RIVM is working closely with Wageningen Bioveterinary Research (WBVR), Royal GD (GD), Erasmus Medical Center (EMC) and Utrecht University/Dutch Wildlife Health Centre (UU/DWHC) to fill the gaps in the surveillance of prioritised pathogens for the Netherlands, avian and swine influenza in wild mammals, outdoor pigs and the environment. The samples will also be used for additional testing for West Nile virus. The results will be stored and analysed in a molecular data platform, supplemented by human influenza surveillance data, to assess the risk to public health. Data will also be shared with EFSA. Read more | Pandemic Preparedness Gap Analysis BE READY | | In December 2022, BE READY Work Package 3 (WP3) delivered a synthetic report, containing an overview of the gaps, challenges, priorities and strategies for pandemic preparedness and related research and innovation. A gap analysis was conducted to identify and synthesise gaps and priorities in preparedness and response. Themes were identified in 14 pillars in terms of gaps to be addressed, priorities for preparedness and response, and priorities for research and innovation. RIVM played a leading role in the gap analysis. The outcomes of this report will feed into developing a Strategic Research and Innovation Agenda to be implemented in between and during epidemics/pandemics. The report and an infographic are available online. | Outcomes of Gov4Nano Project | In February 2023, the Horizon2020 project Gov4Nano was finalised. Coordinated by RIVM, Gov4Nano investigated how to efficiently and effectively manage the potential risks of existing and new nanomaterials. Gov4Nano joined forces with two sister projects – NANORIGO and RiskGONE – to collectively address a shared objective: ultimately ensuring a sustainable and equitable nano risk governance infrastructure for Europe and beyond.
The projects gathered meaningful insights about challenges and issues in risk governance of nanomaterials, such as recommendations presented to the European Commission and broad dialogues with stakeholders. These dialogues have been summarised in 5 governance letters that provide researchers, industry and policymakers with an overview of gaps and barriers, and offer recommendations on ways to move forward with health and safety research and regulation for nanomaterials and other advanced materials. More information available at www.gov4nano.eu and https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/814401/reporting | TREASURE: Serosurveillance Africa project | | In August 2023, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation (BMGF) donated financial resources to aid African countries in improving their serosurveillance system and to transfer expertise that provides the knowledge and tools necessary for assessing protection against infectious diseases and the spread of infectious diseases in their countries. In this two-year partnership, RIVM will host staff training courses for several African laboratories. In addition, an online helpdesk will be set up for further support. The donations will be spent on laboratory materials and on travel and accommodation costs for the African delegations. It will also be used to organise a conference at the end of the project. Read more. | Preventing and controlling infectious diseases | Launch of crisis response organisation LFI boosts pandemic preparedness | | In October 2023, Minister Kuipers of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) launched a new crisis response organisation under the RIVM umbrella: the National Functionality for Scaling up Infectious Disease Control (LFI). This addresses the risk that the Netherlands will once again be confronted with a large-scale outbreak of an infectious disease. In such a situation, LFI will ensure rapid upscaling and national coordination of the medical and operational processes of the Municipal Public Health Services (GGDs), such as testing, vaccination and source and contact tracing. Read more. | Booster vaccinations reduced risk of death from COVID-19 in 2022 | | RIVM and Statistics Netherlands (CBS) carried out a study commissioned by the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS). The Dutch Parliament requested a study on excess mortality during the years of the COVID-19 pandemic. RIVM and CBS both conducted sub-studies based on their own expertise and available data. RIVM research showed that booster vaccinations reduced the risk of dying from COVID-19 in 2022. The risk of death from other causes was also lower for people who had a booster jab than for people without a booster jab. However, the effect of a repeat vaccination wanes over time. Read more. | Vulnerable groups hit hardest by COVID-19 pandemic | | A new RIVM study shows that the COVID-19 pandemic intensified existing socio-economic differences. People on lower incomes were less likely to visit test lanes during the pandemic, but were more likely to be admitted to hospital and intensive care with COVID-19. They were also at a greater risk of dying from the disease. Read more. | Sexual Health Monitor 2023: increase in STI consultations and continued rise in gonorrhoea cases | | The Sexual Health Monitor is a half-yearly report on key figures and trends for STIs and sexual health in the Netherlands. The upward trend in gonorrhoea diagnoses, which began in 2022, continued in the first half of 2023. Gonorrhoea was more prevalent among women and heterosexual men under 25, individuals of Dutch origin and those with a high level of education. Read more. | National Immunisation Programme Surveillance and Trends 2022 – 2023 | | The NIP Surveillance Report outlines the situation in the Netherlands with respect to the 12 infectious diseases for which vaccines are offered under the National Immunisation Programme (NIP). In 2022, a slightly higher number of people contracted diseases covered by the NIP compared to 2021. This increase is likely due to the easing of coronavirus measures, such as social distancing. However, 2022 still saw fewer people contracting diseases than before the COVID-19 pandemic. Read more. | New Zoonoses Report: avian flu most notable outbreak in 2022 | | Throughout 2022, the Netherlands faced a persistent avian flu outbreak, affecting 76 poultry farms. The virus also infected numerous wild birds and various wild mammals. These findings are presented in the Zoonoses Report, an annual publication issued jointly by RIVM and the Netherlands Food and Consumer Product Safety Authority (NVWA). Read more. | | Healthcare and healthy lifestyle | Preview of Dutch Public Health Foresight Study 2024 | | Public health and healthcare in the Netherlands will face three crucial challenges in the period leading up to 2050, according to RIVM’s preview of the Dutch Public Health Foresight Study 2024. These challenges include improving the health of all Dutch residents, enabling good-quality care and support, and addressing the impact of climate change on health and the living environment. Read more. | Combined exposure to high amounts of lead, cadmium, mercury and arsenic increases risk of kidney damage | | People can come into contact with chemicals that may affect their health through food and drinking water. RIVM has studied how much cadmium, lead, arsenic and mercury is ingested by adults (aged 18–65) in 10 countries via this route. In all countries covered by the study, combined exposure to these four metals was too high. For this study, RIVM worked together with nine sister institutes and universities in the European partnership for the development of a next-generation chemical risk assessment method: PARC. Read more. | New version of NEVO with updated data on meat and dairy substitutes | | RIVM published a new version of the Dutch Food Composition Database: NEVO. NEVO contains information on the composition of more than 2,300 foods. Data is available on more than 130 nutrients (proteins, carbohydrates, fats and fatty acids, vitamins and minerals). In this version, the food group ‘meat substitutes and dairy substitutes’ has been updated. Read more. | | Lifestyle Monitor 2022: adherence to Physical Activity Guidelines declines | | The number of people in the Netherlands aged four and over who meet the Physical Activity Guidelines has fallen since 2020. In 2022, 44.3% of the population was sufficiently physically active. Particularly adolescents, young adults, people who do paid work and people who attended higher education were less physically active than in 2019. These are the findings of a study in which RIVM compared the figures from (before the COVID-19 pandemic) to 2022 (after the pandemic). Read more. | PhD research: pure fruit juice is less bad for your health than soft drinks | | Pure fruit juice is less bad for your health than drinks containing added sugar, such as soft drinks. At the same time, juice is not suitable as a direct substitute for eating fruit. This are the conclusions presented by Floor Scheffers in her doctoral thesis. She earned her PhD at Utrecht University yesterday, with the University Medical Center Utrecht and RIVM supporting her doctoral research. Globally, nutritional guidelines advise eating fruit, and not drinking beverages containing added sugar. Recommendations for drinking fruit juice differ from country to country. Read more. | Safe, clean and healthy environment | No changes to chromium (VI) adverse health effect list | | No changes will be made to the list of adverse health effects that may be caused by exposure to chromium (VI) in the workplace. The RIVM study on the latest scientific literature has not resulted in new insights. Moreover, additional research did not identify new links between chromium (VI) and various forms of cancer. Read more. | Health effects of woodsmoke updated following an exploratory literature review | | It is known that the smoke from burning wood contains substances that are harmful to health. Even so, there is no clear scientific evidence of the effects of burning wood on public health. Better research is needed into the extent to which people actually inhale smoke. Read more. | Natura 2000 sites: nitrogen deposition declining, but still too high for much of nature | | Nitrogen levels deposited on vulnerable nature reserves are falling. However, this decline is not sufficient to meet the targets the Dutch government has set itself. This conclusion was presented in the RIVM monitoring report ‘Nitrogen deposition in Natura 2000 areas 2023’. Read more. | | RIVM and EFSA optimise new calculation model for mixture-based risk assessment | | Plant protection products (PPPs) are products used in agriculture to protect crops against, e.g. fungi, insects and weeds. Each product is assessed to determine whether it is safe for people and the environment. Through their diet, people come into contact with multiple substances at the same time. The effect of this combined exposure is called ‘cumulative effect’ or ‘mixture toxicity’. RIVM, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and Biometris (Wageningen University & Research) have jointly developed a calculation model to calculate this mixture toxicity in food. Read more. | Healthy Living Environment Programme launched | | The goal of RIVM’s Healthy Living Environment programme is a healthy living environment for all. A healthy living environment is one that is clean and safe, protects against health risks and encourages exercise and socialising. The Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (VWS) has commissioned RIVM and the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, (ZonMw) to design the programme together. Read more. | |
