Where to Find ECDC Surveillance Reports and Communicable Disease Threat Updates

ECDC publishes its recurring surveillance and threat-monitoring outputs through two main entry points on ecdc.europa.eu: the Publications section and the News section. If you want the weekly communicable disease threat report, go to Publications and look under "Surveillance and monitoring." If you want time-sensitive outbreak statements and risk assessments, go to News. The two overlap in topic but differ in purpose: Publications carries structured, recurring reports; News carries dated statements and updates as events develop.

The two entry points and when to use each

The homepage lists both. Recent items shown there include the Communicable disease threats report, 3 - 9 October, week 41 and Seasonal surveillance of dengue in the EU/EEA under Publications, alongside news items such as ECDC closely monitoring situation following case of pneumonia of unknown origin in Russia and Risk to general population remains very low following fourth imported Ebola case in Europe.

Finding the weekly communicable disease threat report (CDTR)

The CDTR is ECDC's weekly threats report and appears in the Publications section under "Surveillance and monitoring." The homepage example is dated by week number — week 41, covering 3–9 October — which tells you the reporting period is a defined epidemiological week rather than a rolling news feed.

To locate the current edition:

1. Open ecdc.europa.eu.
2. Go to Publications.
3. Select the Surveillance and monitoring category.
4. Look for the Communicable disease threats report entry with the most recent week number.

Expected result: a dated weekly report. The week number and date range in the title are your verification that you have the latest edition rather than an archived one. A common snag is landing on an older week through a search engine — check the week number against the current calendar before citing it.

The CDTR is also listed among the homepage's "Featured" links, alongside ERVISS and the Learning Portal, so it can be reached directly from the front page without going through Publications.

Respiratory virus surveillance: ERVISS

The European Respiratory Virus Surveillance Summary (ERVISS) is a featured surveillance product, listed under "Featured" on the homepage. It sits alongside the CDTR and the Learning Portal as one of the standing outputs ECDC wants visitors to reach quickly.

Use ERVISS when your question is specifically about respiratory virus activity rather than the full range of communicable disease threats. Use the CDTR when you need the broader weekly picture. The two are complementary rather than alternatives — a respiratory-focused query is served better by ERVISS, while a general "what is circulating this week" query is served by the CDTR.

Seasonal and topic-specific surveillance

Not all surveillance reporting is weekly. The homepage shows Seasonal surveillance of dengue in the EU/EEA as a Publications item, indicating that some diseases are tracked on a seasonal cycle rather than a weekly one. If you are following a vector-borne or seasonally patterned disease, check the Surveillance and monitoring category for a topic-specific series rather than assuming the weekly report covers it in the same depth.

ECDC states that it collects, analyses and shares data on more than 50 infectious disease topics, so the Surveillance and monitoring category is the place to browse when you do not yet know which series covers your topic.

Operational and laboratory material

The Publications section also carries "Operational support" documents, such as the Handbook of laboratory protocols for respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) characterisation. These are not surveillance reports in the epidemiological sense — they are technical and protocol documents. If your need is a laboratory method or an operational protocol rather than disease activity data, look in this category instead of Surveillance and monitoring.

Reading ECDC risk assessments correctly

News items frequently carry a risk assessment alongside the event report. The homepage examples show the pattern: for the Bundibugyo virus disease outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda, ECDC assessed the likelihood of infection for people living in the EU/EEA as very low, while noting that information remained limited. For the suspected pneumonic plague case in Irkutsk, Russia, ECDC stated it was closely monitoring the situation.

Two things follow for anyone tracking these updates. First, the risk level is assessed for a defined population — people in the EU/EEA — not globally, so a "very low" rating does not describe risk elsewhere. Second, ECDC flags its own information limits, as in the Ebola assessment. When you cite a risk level, carry the population and the caveat with it.

Practical tracking routine

• Weekly: check Publications → Surveillance and monitoring for the newest CDTR week number.
• As events develop: check News for dated statements and revised risk assessments.
• Respiratory season: check ERVISS via the Featured links.
• Topic-specific: browse Surveillance and monitoring for a seasonal or disease-specific series.
• Methods and protocols: use the Operational support category.

The distinction that matters most: Publications for citable, dated, recurring reports; News for the current state of a developing event.