EU adds €12M to epidemic research after German E.coli outbreak

The European Commission is putting more money into research on epidemics following the recent outbreak in Germany of virulent Escherichia coli that infected close to 4,000 people and killed 46. The money is going to a cross-border consortium called Antigone that will start work this autumn on building as full a scientific picture as possible of the new E. coli strain – to which approximately €2.1 million will be specifically dedicated - and of a range of other virulent pathogens that could pose a threat to human health.

The consortium will work in close collaboration with another project selected for funding earlier, called Premedics.

Antigone (ANTIcipating the Global Onset of Novel Epidemics), will involve 14 partners from seven countries who will study a broad range of viruses and bacteria, including Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli. The project aims to identify the factors that enable viral and bacterial pathogens from animals cross the species barrier and be transmitted among people.

When new and unknown diseases emerge, Antigone will make it possible to perform and coordinate analyses of the bacteria or viruses involved, the epidemiology of the disease and the way it is transmitted. The project also aims to identify possible ways of eradicating disease and draw lessons that may help prevent threats in the future.

The EU’s overall portfolio of research on emerging epidemics, with a budget of well over €170 million under FP7 (2007-2013), includes work on improving the capability to detect new unknown emerging viruses (project EMPERIE), on developing drugs against any virus (project SILVER) and on limiting transmission of several vector-borne emerging diseases (project EDENext).

The European Commission has previously funded research on pathogenic E. coli, focusing mainly on the food and water safety.

The Premedics project on Preparedness, Prediction and Prevention of Emerging Zoonotic Viruses with Pandemic Potential will focus on four families of viruses with an epidemic potential in Europe: influenza, hepatitis E, rabies, diseases caused by rabies-related lyssaviruses and infections caused by the Japanese encephalitis virus or the West Nile virus.