Dear friends and colleagues,

I am in Budapest attending the 'For a healthy future of our children - childhood immunization' conference, hosted by the Hungarian Presidency of the Council of the European Union. DG SANCO, ECDC and WHO are joint hosts, under the auspices in the Hungarian Ministry of National Resources. About 30 Member States are represented here. The meeting has provided a particularly useful platform on which countries have shared their knowledge, challenges and experiences in reaching and boosting immunization within susceptible un- and under-vaccinated populations in the EU. We have just had a couple of sessions on innovative apoproaches used in reaching low coverage groups in Romania, Bulgaria, Spain and Ireland. Another particularly interesting proposal presented during the meeting concerns the potential introduction of a multi-lingual immunization card for the EU.  

I will endeavour to share meeting outcomes and the meeting report to you in the near future.

Please also note that there is a short introduction on the meeting on the WHO Europe website (www.euro.who.int) under the title Immunization in Europe - ''at crossroads''

I hope this finds you all well.

With best wishes

Robb Butler