K.3. Round Table: Infectious diseases surveillance and control under the changing climate

@article{europeanclimateandhealthobservatory2026round,
  title = {{K.3. Round Table: Infectious diseases surveillance and control under the changing climate}},
  author = {European Climate and Health Observatory, European Environment Agency and Emanuele Massaro},
  journal = {The European Journal of Public Health},
  year = {2026},
  month = oct,
  doi = {10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.151},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.151},
  note = {CC BY-NC 4.0},
}

TY  - JOUR
TI  - K.3. Round Table: Infectious diseases surveillance and control under the changing climate
AU  - European Climate and Health Observatory, European Environment Agency
AU  - Emanuele Massaro
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/01
JO  - The European Journal of Public Health
DO  - 10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.151
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckag169.151
AB  - Climate change is rapidly reshaping Europe’s disease landscape. Rising temperatures, shifting rainfall, and biodiversity loss are expanding the reach and season of vector-borne, zoonotic, and waterborne diseases — yet the scientific evidence, monitoring frameworks, and regulatory instruments to respond to this challenge remain fragmented across research programmes, agencies, and policy domains.This round table, moderated by the European Climate and Health Observatory of the European Environment Agency, brings together leading actors from science, regulation, and public health practice. The chair will guide the session through thematic slides, each posing a key question or evidence point for panelists to debate. Discussion moves from policy frameworks to research gaps, closing with 15 minutes of audience Q&A.The themes explored will span the full policy-to-science continuum. Laura Gillini (DG SANTE) will address the EU regulatory dimension, examining how policies and initiatives are allowing a strengthened action to incorporate climate as a structural driver of threats to health, with a focus on vector-borne diseases.Angela Fanelli (JRC) will show how the JRC Exploratory Research Programme and the APES project (Assessing infectious disease outbreaks with Pandemic and Epidemic riSk) contribute to better understanding of pandemics risks by informing about multi-factorial drivers of EIDs and pandemic risk in Europe and globally. Christopher Irrgang from the Robert Koch Institute will explore how artificial intelligence can be applied to address cross-domain public health challenges at the intersection of climate change and human health in the context of the CLIMADEMIC project. Adrià San Jose Plana from the Barcelona Supercomputing Center will use outputs from the E4Warning project to demonstrate how eco epidemiological intelligence supports early warning and response to mosquito borne diseases. He will also present the EpiOutlook platform developed under IDAlert (in collaboration with Prof. Rocklöv) and highlight findings on changing infectious disease seasonality in Europe.Prof. Joacim Rocklöv from the Heidelberg Planetary Health Hub will present key infectious disease indicators from the 2026 Lancet Countdown Europe Report and illustrate how the Horizon-funded IDAlert project has produced pan-European climate-sensitive disease risk indicators and decision-support tools grounded in a One Health framework.The session ultimately asks: how the EU health security frameworks could further evolve to incorporate climate as a structural determinant of infectious disease risk considering all the core dimensions of One Health? How do we translate policies into timely, effective public health action at country, regional and local levels? And what evidence gaps remain between research outputs and implementation that future research programmes must urgently address?  Key messages: • Climate change is accelerating infectious disease risks in Europe; research, monitoring and regulatory frameworks must be urgently integrated to protect population health.  • Bridging EU health security regulation, operational surveillance, open data principles, and Horizon research outputs, are key to climate-resilient infectious disease control in Europe.  Speakers/Panellists: Christopher Irrgang  Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany  Adrià San José  Barcelona Supercomputing Center (BSC), Barcelona, Spain
SN  - 1101-1262
SN  - 1464-360X
ER  -