< PreviousYEARBOOK 2020/2021 SCIENCE8 A look back into a tough but ultimately rewarding year The pandemic year has been a very unusual one for science, with highs and lows. The massive effort around the COVID-19 res- ponse has shown the world how important science is and how the scientific community relating to all aspects of infection is able to respond very quickly and effec- tively to a crisis, given sufficient funding. Infection research has never been of more interest to the general population and this is good for us. ESCMID was able to highlight much of this remar- kable progress in the first year of the pandemic in a number of ex- cellent on-line events, including the exciting ESCMID Conference on Coronavirus Disease (ECCVID) in September. At the same time, much non-COVID science and related funding have been dis- rupted this year for all sorts of reasons, ranging from personal illness through different calls on people’s time to help with pande- mic activities to various degrees of lockdown at different times. Despite the difficulties rai- sed by COVID-19, I am delighted to report on the healthy state of science within ESCMID. As you will see below, we received a high number of excellent applications for all grant types offered, which reflects the wide range of inter- ests of our membership. First, I should like to highlight our Young Investigator Awards, which are highly sought after by the very best emerging infection scien- tists in the world, with 16 applica- tions from 9 countries. This year, congratulations go to Marit van Gils from The Netherlands and Ja- son Trubiano from Australia, who I am sure will soon be well known to you all, if you are not already familiar with their work. I am now really looking forward to seeing your 2021 applications! Research Grants: a huge success ESCMID continues its strong com- mitment to support research, as evidenced by our funding of 15 excellent researchers that submit- “In challenging times, many thanks to our outstanding ESCMID research community who excelled with cut- ting edge molecular, clinical and diagno- stic research in SARS- CoV-2 and many other equally important infections.” Jon S. Friedland ESCMID Scientific Affairs Officer jon.s.friedland@escmid.orgwww.escmid.org/science YEARBOOK 2020/2021 SCIENCE 9 ted proposals for the 2021 ESCMID Research Grant call (see page 96). Our Research Grant Programme remains highly popular within our society and very productive in terms of publications (see page 40). The 2021 call focused on pro- jects dealing with fungal/viral/pa- rasitic infections, and I am proud to announce that despite the tre- mendous impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the professional life of clinical microbiology and in- fectious disease specialists, we received 96 eligible applications. This represents a wonderful (and in part unexpected) result: in the previous fungal/viral/parasitic call, we got “only” 77 applications! Interestingly, the majority of pro- posals did not relate to COVID and of the 15 funded, just 2 were CO- VID-19 projects. It is important that the full range of infection science continues its work in pandemic times, and this is clearly the view of the applicants as well. Furthermore, I would like to give special thanks to all experts (see page 106) who have done a terrific job evaluating the large number of received proposals. Although most of our reviewers were in the front line against CO- VID-19 (thus undoubtedly facing increased workload and stress), they dedicated part of their limi- ted free time ESCMID. I want also to express my sincere gratitude to the amazing ESCMID Scientific Office: our team worked hard to increase the number of trusted reviewers. In this regard, we are pleased to announce that the number of evaluators in our data- base increased by 15%! As such, we were able to reduce the work- load for selected reviewers: an average of 1.82 proposals were assigned to each expert. The re- duced workload resulted in a very efficient evaluation process: at the agreed deadline, about 90% of the selected reviewers completed the evaluations. Study groups and Study Group Research Grants: continuous progress Central to the Scientific Affairs portfolio are the 31 ESCMID Study Groups (SGs). This year has been difficult but also presented with many opportunities for our Study Groups. Developing bet- ter communication with and by the Study Groups has been a fo- cus of this past year. With phy- sical meetings being nearly im- possible, adapting and evolving into the digital space was key. With this in mind, new commu- nication initiatives were started this year like the introduction of Study Group social media accounts to share their achie- vements, along with the de- velopment of new Study Group Newsletters, which are inten- ded to help members engage with projects run by the Groups, as well as share information on publications, awards and other relevant information in the spe- cific areas of interest. Despite the restrictions on meetings, some groups resourcefully held educational webinars to engage and promote education in their topics. We also want to cong- ratulate the 11 Study Groups that held Executive Committee elections this year and wish the new members “Good luck!”. We are planning to continue sup- porting these great initiatives and more in the coming year. I am also very pleased to ack- nowledge and thank all the Scien- tific Affairs Subcommittee mem- bers and the selected reviewers (see page 106) for their commit- ment in the evaluation process of Study Group Research appli- cations. This year, we received 21 submissions for the ESCMID Study Group Research Grants, and we were highly impressed by the outstanding quality of the submitted projects. After careful consideration, the Executive Com- mittee decided to give 3 awards following the peer review pro- cess. The awarded Study Groups were the ESCMID study group for Mycoplasma and Chlamydia in- fections (ESGMAC); the ESCMID Fungal Infection Study Group (EFISG); the ESCMID Study Group for Infectious Diseases of the Brain (ESGIB). Welcome to the new Scientific Affairs Subcommittee The Scientific Affairs Subcommit- tee (SAS) has the key role of advi- sing the society on strategic mat- ters related to Scientific Affairs. Each SAS member takes individual responsibility for the assigned section/theme and, as section/ theme leader, he/she will work in that area to facilitate scientific col- laborations. Furthermore, the SAS members participate in the eva- luation of Study Group Research Grant applications and carefully analyze the productivity of the ESCMID Study Groups, with the fi- nal aim of maximizing their scien- tific activity. They do many other tasks as well, including suppor- ting ESCMID scientific meetings. In 2020, five experienced SAS members completed their terms of office: Carolina Garcia Vidal, Souha S. Kanj, Mona Johannes- sen, Frédéric Laurent and Oliver Dyar. I am very grateful for their commitment and hard work du- ring the last four years! They will be much missed and we have really appreciated the time that they have given to ESCMID sci- ence through the SAS, although I am sure that they will continue supporting science and ESCMID in other ways. I want to record here my personal thanks to all of them. New members of the SAS sin- ce the start of 2021 are Alvaro Pa- scual Hernandez, Valentina Arsic Arsenijevic, Pontus Naucler, Silvio Daniel Brugger, and Odile Launay. I very warmly welcome all the newly appointed members and am looking forward to working together! Bacteria & Bacterial Diseases Holger Rohde (Germany) until December 2022 Fungi & Fungal Diseases Carolina Garcia Vidal (Spain) until December 2020 Valentina Arsic Arsenijevic (Ser- bia) starting in 2021 Parasites & Parasitic Diseases Zeno Bisoffi (Italy) until Decem- ber 2022 Viruses & Viral Diseases Mary Horgan (Ireland) until December 2022 Pathogenesis & Immunology Mona Johannessen (Norway) until December 2020 Silvio Daniel Brugger (Switzer- land) starting in 2021 Epidemiology, Public Health & Vaccinology Oliver Dyar (Sweden) until December 2020 Odile Launay (France) starting in 2021 Clinics & Therapeutics Souha Kanj (Lebanon) until December 2020 Pontus Naucler (Sweden) starting in 2021 Diagnostics Kate Templeton (United King- dom) until December 2022 Antimicrobial Resistance & Susceptibility Testing Frédéric Laurent (France) until December 2020 Alvaro Pascual Hernandez (Spain) starting in 2021 Scientific Affairs Subcommittee YEARBOOKYEARBOOK 2020/2021 SCIENCE12 • Publication of the article “MixInYeast: A Multicenter Study on Mixed Yeast Infections”, Medina et al., Journal of Fungi, 2020 • Publication of the article “Invasive pulmonary aspergillo- sis treatment duration in haematology patients in Europe: An EFISG, IDWP-EBMT, EORTC-IDG and SEIFEM survey” Lanter- nier et al., Mycoses, 2020 • Creation of EFISG twitter account @efisg_escmid • Participated in and organised the ECCVID session “Wastewa- ter and COVID-19: a tool for SARS-CoV-2 dynamic surveillance” • Successfully elected a new Study Group Executive Commit- tee for the term of 2020-2022 • Support to ECCMID 2021 with the submission of 2 new ses- sions of which “Hidden reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance across One Health” was accepted • Publication of the article “Pharmacokinetics/Pharmacody- namics of Antiviral Agents Used to Treat SARS-CoV-2 and Their Potential Interaction with Drugs and Other Supportive Mea- sures: A Comprehensive Review by the PK/PD of Anti-Infecti- ves Study Group of the European Society of Antimicrobial Agents with EPASG”, Zeitlinger et al., Clin Pharmacokinet, 2020 • Publication of the position paper “Antimicrobial therapeutic drug monitoring in critically ill adult patients”, Abdul-Aziz et al., Intensive Care Med, 2020 • Co-organised the “Modeling SARS-CoV-2 viral dynamics et al. to optimize therapy” webinar in November 2020 Figure legend: Chromogenic agar plate showing colonies of different Candida species. Figure legend: Antimicrobial resistant waterborne bacterial isolates. Figure legend: Active participation of EPASG members from all over the world to online mee- tings and webinars. This year was fraught with challenges and uncertainty for many, however our Study Groups persevered and accom- plished much in 2020 adapting quickly to the limitations of the pandemic. The following pages highlight the major accomplish- ments and achievements of our Study Groups as well as their on- going projects. Here you will see the various activities that they regularly organise such as: pro- posing symposia, educational workshops and meet-the-ex- pert sessions for ECCMID, orga- nising educational workshops (see page 54 Education) and publishing scientific articles in ESCMID’s name (see page 40 Publications). However, new this year, many of our Study Groups began producing virtual content like websymposia series or on- line conferences. YEARBOOK 2020/2021 SCIENCE 13 • Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of anaerobic bacteria, isolated from human clinical specimens, within different European and surrounding countries. A joint ESGAI study • Detection of beta-lactamase production in clinical Prevotella species by MALDI-TOF MS • A Europe-wide assessment of antibiotic resistance rates in Bacteroides and Parabacteroides isolates from intestinal microbiota of healthy subjects • Ceftriaxone treatment of spondylodiscitis and other serious infections with Cutibacterium acnes • Publication of the article “COVID-19: don‘t neglect antimicro- bial stewardship principles!” Huttner et al., Clin Microbiol Infect, 2020 • Organiser of the “Antimicrobial stewardship in COVID-19 times” webinar, May 2020 • ESGAP participated in roundtable discussions “Harmonizing the appearance of oral antibiotics” conducted by the ABA- CUS II (AntiBiotic Access and Use) consortium, a Wellcome Trust funded research project • Organiser of the “ESGARS online demonstration on AMRcloud: make your AMR data visible” technical workshop webinar • Collaboration on the Central Asian and European Surveillance of Antimicrobial Resistance (CAESAR) • Collaboration in research project together with the Study group for carbapenem resistance (SCARE): Comparison of Clinical Outcomes in Bloodstream Infections with Carba- penem Hetero-resistant vs Carbapenem-Resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae (COMBAT) • Participated in the online biofilm meeting “The Social Biofilm Network”, June 2020. ESGB speaker Ian Vandenbussche gave a talk titled “DNA methylation epigenetically controls cell aggregation and biofilm formation in Burkholderia cenoce- pacia” • Co-organiser of the “Galleria melonella workshop” that has been moved to July 2021 • Exceptional support to both ECCVID and ECCMID with 5 accep- ted session proposals Figure legend: Heterogeneously carbapenem-resistant Bacteroides fragilis strains (credit: Depart- ment of Clinical Micro- biology, University of Szeged, Hungary). Figure legend: Pictured is Prof. Marlies Hulscher with a group of students. It is one of the primary goals of ESGAP to organise and promote educational activities. Figure legend: Word Art courtesy of Cansu Cimen, University Medical Center Groningen, the Netherlands, Univer- sity of Oldenburg, Germany. Education Officer-ESGARS Figure legend: Biofilm formation on the distal part of an endo- tracheal tube recovered from a COVID-19 patient.YEARBOOK 2020/2021 SCIENCE14 • Co-organiser of the post-graduate course “Improving survival rates of severe skin and soft-tissue infections” to take place online in May 2021 • Launch of the “Risk factors for Gram-negative infection of cardio- vascular implantable electronic devices: retrospective multicen- ter study - CarDINe Study”, in collaboration with ESGIAI, aimed at investigating epidemiology and risk factors for infection associa- ted with cardiovascular devices due to Gram-negative bacteria • Starting the Clinical Practice Guideline projects “Microbiological diagnostic of bloodstream infection” and “Surviving Sepsis Cam- paign: International Guidelines for Management of Sepsis and Septic Shock: 2020” • Publication of the position paper “Rejection of the name Bor- reliella and all proposed species comb. nov. placed therein”, Margos et al., Int J Syst Evol Microbiol, 2020 • Support to the publication “Lyme Borreliosis with Scalp Eschar Mimicking Rickettsial Infection, Austria”, Markowicz et al., Emerg Infect Dis, 2020 • Participation in steering committee meeting where ESGBOR papers regarding standards for diagnostic accuracy and Lyme Borreliosis treatment were discussed • Publication of the article “Clostridioides difficile ribotypes 001 and 126 were predominant in Tehran healthcare settings from 2004 to 2018: a 14-year-long cross-sectional study”, Azimirad et al., Emerg Microbes Infect, 2020 • Supporting organiser of the 7th International C. difficile Sym- posium, online, September-October 2020 • Publication of the review “Diagnostic and therapy of severe Clostridioides difficile infections in the ICU”, Guery et al., Curr Opin Crit Care, 2020 • Publication of the position paper “Antimicrobial therapeutic drug monitoring in critically ill adult patients”, Abdul-Aziz et al., Intensive Care Med, 2020 • Co-organiser of the post-graduate course “Cutting edge: improving survival rates of severe skin and soft-tissue infec- tions” to take place in 2021 • Excellent contribution to ECCMID 2021 with four accepted new session proposals Figure legend: Big Bang of bacteria (credit: Vall d‘Hebron Institute of Research, Barcelona, Spain) Figure legend: Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato in culture, dark field microscopy; erythema migrans (credit: Medical University of Vienna). Figure legend: The emergence and spread of Clostridioides difficile PCR ribotype 176 in Europe (Novakova et al., JCM, 2020) ■ Multicentre clusters ■ Sporadic cases ■ Single centre cluster YEARBOOK 2020/2021 SCIENCE 15 • Publication of the article “Chagas disease in the United Kingdom: A review of cases at the Hospital for Tropical Diseases London 1995-2018. The current state of detection of Chagas disease in the UK”, González Sanz et al., Travel Med Infect Dis, 2020 • Publication of the article “Toxoplasma gondii-specific IgG avidity tes- ting in pregnant women”, Garnaud et al., Clin Microbiol Infect, 2020 • Launch of the survey “Diagnosis of diphyllobothriosis” among ESGCP members to report on diagnosis of diphyllobothriosis during 2016-2019 • Publication of the article “Integrated chromosomal and plas- mid sequence analyses reveal diverse modes of carbapene- mase gene spread among Klebsiella pneumoniae ”, David et al., PNAS, 2020 • Call for papers for a special issue of “Frontiers in Microbio- logy” dedicated to ESGEM activities “Bacterial Pathogen Genomics: Recent Achievements, Current Applications and Future Challenges” • Organiser of three post-graduate courses to take place in 2021 • External advisory board member of GAPP Joint Action “Facili- tating the Authorisation of Preparation Process for blood, tissues and cells” • Continued collaboration as part of the technical expertise in a European Twinning Grant Contract – Forensic Trainings Towards Advanced Examination Methods • Ongoing elaboration of a guidelines document in collabora- tion with the GEITS • Publication of the consensus paper “A standardised model for stool banking for faecal microbiota transplantation: a consen- sus report from a multidisciplinary UEG working group”, Keller et al., United European Gastroenterol J, 2020 • Publication of the article “Microbiome in the setting of burn patients: implications for infections and clinical outcomes”, Corcione et al., Burns & Trauma, 2020 • Organiser of the online IDWeek session “Diagnostic Pitfalls in COVID-19”, October 2020 Figure legend: The wonderful world of parasites: A) egg of Hymenolepis nana; B) intracellular amastigotes of Leishmania major; C) schizont of Plasmodium ovale; D) female adult of Strongyloïdes stercoralis (credit: Florence Robert-Gangneux). Figure legend: Extensive inflammatory in- filtrate in lower left pulmonary lobe. Final HP diagnosis: (S. pyo- genes) abscessed pneumonia in the lower left lobe with purulent exudate in pleura (credit: Maria Paz Suárez, Instituto Nacional de Toxicología y Ciencias Forenses, Spain). Figure legend: Microbes colonising our mucosal sur- faces affect the interaction between virus and host during acute viral infections. © Wouter de Steenhuijsen Piters YEARBOOK 2020/2021 SCIENCE16 • Publication of four original articles including “How to handle concomitant asymptomatic prosthetic joints during an episode of hematogenous PJI, a multicentre analysis”, Wouthuyzen- Bakker et al., Clin Infect Dis, 2020 • Supporting organiser of the Irish Society of Clinical Microbiolo- gists conference: prevention, diagnosis and treatment of cardiac device infections, March 2020 • Ongoing international joined database in REDCap for prospective documentation of cases with Periprosthetic Joint Infections (PJI) • Initiated the ESCMID guidelines project “Diagnosis and treat- ment of brain abscess” • Publication of the article “Combined therapy with ceftriaxone and doxycycline does not improve the outcome of meningo- coccal meningitis in mice compared to ceftriaxone mono- therapy”, Ricci et al., BMC Infect Dis, 2020 • Robust contribution to both ECCVID and ECCMID with four submitted proposals • Preparation of the ECCVID one-hour symposium “COVID-19 in immunosuppressed patients” • Organisation of the ECCMID 2021 meet-the-expert session “The transplant donor and recipient with active infection: when to say yes and when to say no” • Publication of two reviews regarding management of antibio- tic therapy in elderly patients • Publication of the systematic review “A systematic review assessing the under-representation of elderly adults in COVID-19 trials”, Prendki et al., BMC Geriatrics, 2020 • Organization of an ESCMID post-graduate course “Infections in elderly - from bench to (beyond) bed” to be held as an online course during spring 2021 Figure legend: Cranial MRI showing a large brain abscess in the right frontal lobe on the T2 weighted images (left) and T1 images with gadolinium (right). Figure legend: Antibiotic loaded cement spacer for the treatment of a chronic periprosthetic joint infection of the hip (2-stage revision). YEARBOOK 2020/2021 SCIENCE 17 Figure legend: Correlation between country latitude and epidemic week for Mycoplasma pneumoniae infections of 7 European countries and Israel, in 3 epidemic periods (Beeton et al. M. pneumoniae infecti- ons, 11 countries in Europe and Israel, 2011 to 2016). • Supporting organiser of the EUPHA/16th World Congress on Public Health 2020. Submitted abstract “Developing more responsive systems to ensure the delivery of catch-up vaccina- tion to migrants on arrival to Europe” • Two systematic reviews accepted for publication in 2021 on “Clinical outcomes and risk factors for COVID-19 among migrant populations in high-income countries” and “Initiation and com- pletion of treatment for latent tuberculosis infection in migrants globally” • Successfully completed the Study Group elections for a new Executive Committee for the term 2020 – 2022 • Publication of four ESGLI Guidance documents for managing Legionella in dental, nursing and care home, hospital and general building water systems during the COVID-19 pande- mic • Organised the ESGLI websymposium “How to ensure your building water system is safe during and post COVID-19” • Launch of a research project on the evaluation of 16 assays for the qualitative detection of Legionella pneumophila anti- gen in urine samples from patients with pneumonia by 9 European National reference centres for Legionella (ESGLI members) • ESCMID research grant awarded to the project “A novel ‘Tro- jan horse’ approach to delivering antimicrobial peptide nuc- leic acids to Mycoplasma genitalium”, to develop novel targe ted antimicrobials for treating Mycoplasma genitalium infection • ESCMID Study Group research grant awarded for the project “Genome-wide association study to identify differential virulence among Mycoplasma pneumoniae isolates from across Europe and Israel”, to identify genomic signatures associated with increased virulence of M. pneumoniae • Supporting the Digital ID2020 conference “Digitalization and Infectious Diseases: Improving patient outcome in the age of big data”, January 2020, Switzerland • Organisation of three 1-hour webinars on topics related to genomic and molecular diagnostics: Next-Generation Se- quencing in diagnostics, Tracing and surveillance programs for outbreaks, MALDI-TOF Figure legend: (credit: Maria Luisa Ricci)Next >