DIVINE-NET
An EU funded research project under the"Health and Consumer Protection Directorate General"

Project Objectives

Overall:
• To develop sustained surveillance and early warning for outbreaks of illness due to noroviruses, including food-, and waterborne outbreaks, and based on the framework developed through the “Foodborne viruses in Europe research network” (QLK1-CT-00594).
• To enhance the capability of the EC to respond to new and emerging enteric viral diseases.
Specific
• To develop harmonised surveillance of noroviruses within the EU and applicant countries.
• To ensure the quality of this network by providing proficiency testing.
• To provide an open networked virtual centre for integrated collection of epidemiological and virological data.
• To identify norovirus outbreaks of EU public health importance associated with traded foods and tourism.
• To use this information for short-term control.
• To use this information to inform longer term policy for norovirus outbreak control at local, national and EU level, with regard to food harvesting and hygiene and with regard to the tourism sector for water, sanitation and environmental hygiene.
• To provide access to a network of experts covering a wide spectrum of faecal-orally transmitted viruses.

Project Deliverables

• Optimisation and harmonisation of laboratory diagnosis of norovirus through QC test reports (one per year): disseminated individually to participants, and to commission in annual report.
• QC test reports (one per year) for strain typing and its use in source tracing: disseminated individually to participants, and to commission in annual report.
• A sustained web-based outbreak reporting system for data entry and analysis will be granted to all participants; available continuously from the start of the project).
• Quarterly reports on norovirus activity. Reports will be published in Eurosurveillance and on Promed.
• Alerts via e-mail of unusual outbreaks that require further attention, and follow-up investigation of such outbreaks.
• Submission of results for publication in peer-reviewed journals.