Emerging Diseases in a changing European eNvironment (EDEN)

EDEN (Emerging Diseases in a changing European eNvironment) is an Integrated Project of the European Commission that aims to identify and catalogue those European ecosystems and environmental conditions which can influence the spatial and temporal distribution and dynamics of human pathogenic agents. The project develops and co-coordinates a set of generic methods, tools and skills such as predictive models, early warning and monitoring tools which can be used by decision makers for risk assessment, decision support for intervention and public health policies.
EDEN has selected a range of indicator human diseases that are especially sensitive to environmental changes and that are studied within a common scientific framework. Some of these diseases are already present in Europe (Tick- and Rodent-borne diseases, Leishmaniasis, West Nile fever), others were present historically (Malaria) or are on the fringes of Europe (Rift Valley Fever) in endemic regions of West and Northern Africa. The project will combine:

1. The description on the epidemiological cycles in a variety of representative environmental settings through an integrated and multidisciplinary approach:

• To characterise the competence and capacity of potential vectors, hosts and reservoirs likely to integrate, perpetuate or spread new functioning disease cycles.
• To identify intrinsic and extrinsic factors triggering or modulating emergence and spread in Europe and the endemic disease areas.
• To develop and implement methodologies for Pan-European predictive emergence and spread models.
• To examine current and (expected) future changes in the European environment likely to favour the emergence or re-emergence of vector-borne diseases.