Andrea Ammon

Andrea Ammon is a German physician and the current director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), a European Union (EU) agency strengthening Europe's defence against infectious disease.[1] She advised the German government on the SARS and Influenza A virus subtype H2N2 outbreaks.

Andrea Ammon
Ammon at Ministers for Health meeting in Slovakia, 2016
Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control
Assumed office
16 June 2017 (acting since 2015)
Preceded byMarc Sprenger
Personal details
NationalityGermany
ResidenceSweden
Websitewww.ecdc.europa.eu

Early life and education

In 1996 Ammon completed her doctorate in medicine at the Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, where she studied the quality of life for patients that have palliative therapy for metastatic liver disease.[2]

Career

Ammon joined the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin in 1996. Between 2002 and 2005, she was Head of Department for Infectious Disease Epidemiology.[3] At the Robert Koch Institute, Ammon was responsible for the German national outbreak surveillance system, coordinating their response to severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) and Influenza A virus subtype H2N2.[4] As part of this effort, Ammon investigated in-flight transmission of SARS and found that it was uncommon; and only likely if infected people fly during symptomatic phases of their illness.[5]

In 2005, Ammon joined the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), where she was appointed Head of Surveillance.[1][6] She was one of the first employees at the ECDC, and has since been described as "instrumental" in establishing the surveillance strategy.[3] The ECDC looks to standardise infection control across the European Union, ensuring consistent practise took place in the surveillance networks of member states. In this capacity she was responsible for the formation of The European Surveillance System (TESSy), a uniform, long-term data acquisition system for the European Union.[7] TESSy launched in April 2008.[7]

Ammon was responsible for evaluating the European Dedicated Surveillance Networks (DSN), which included the EURO TB and EURO HIV networks, eventually incorporating them into the framework of the ECDC.[8] In 2011 she was made Deputy Director of the Resource Management and Coordination unit.[9] A few years later, she led the European Scientific Conference on Applied Infectious Disease Epidemiology.[10] As part of the conference, in the wake of the Western African Ebola virus epidemic, Ammon oversaw sessions on food-borne diseases, zoonotic viruses and globalisation.[10] She succeeded Marc Sprenger as Acting Director of the ECDC on 1 May 2015.[11] She was subsequently appointed Director[12] on 22 March 2017 and took office on 16 June 2017.[13][14] In 2017 the ECDC and WHO announced that whilst cases of tuberculosis were on the decline in Europe, Tuberculosis in relation to HIV was on the rise.[15]

During the COVID-19 pandemic Ammon was involved with the global response to coronavirus disease. On January 26, Ammon and the ECDC advised governments in the European Union to strengthen their healthcare capacity.[16] Unfortunately, the ECDC had over-estimated the stocks of personal protective equipment and lab testing capacity in individual member states, resulting in considerable spread of coronavirus disease across Europe.[17] She has since said that the extensive spread of coronavirus in Europe can be linked to the return of holidaymakers from skiing trips in early March.[16] In early May, Ammon gave evidence before the European Parliament on public health, and said that the United Kingdom was behind other European member states in their response to coronavirus disease.[18] In an interview with The Guardian on May 20, 2020, Ammon emphasised that there was likely to be a second wave of SARS-CoV-2 infections, “...the question is when and how big,”.[16]

Selected publications
  • Friedrich, Alexander W.; Bielaszewska, Martina; Zhang, Wen-Lan; Pulz, Matthias; Kuczius, Thorsten; Ammon, Andrea; Karch, Helge (2002-01-01). "Escherichia coli Harboring Shiga Toxin 2 Gene Variants: Frequency and Association with Clinical Symptoms". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 185 (1): 74–84. doi:10.1086/338115. ISSN 0022-1899. PMID 11756984.
  • Ammon, Andrea; Petersen, Lyle R.; Karch, Helge (1999-05-01). "A Large Outbreak of Hemolytic Uremic Syndrome Caused by an Unusual Sorbitol-Fermenting Strain of Escherichia coli O157:H—". The Journal of Infectious Diseases. 179 (5): 1274–1277. doi:10.1086/314715. ISSN 0022-1899. PMID 10191236.
  • Werber, Dirk; Dreesman, Johannes; Feil, Fabian; van Treeck, Ulrich; Fell, Gerhard; Ethelberg, Steen; Hauri, Anja M.; Roggentin, Peter; Prager, Rita; Fisher, Ian S.T.; Behnke, Susanne C. (2005-02-03). "International outbreak of SalmonellaOranienburg due to German chocolate". BMC Infectious Diseases. 5 (1): 7. doi:10.1186/1471-2334-5-7. ISSN 1471-2334. PMC 552305. PMID 15691371.

References
  1. "Director of ECDC - Dr Andrea Ammon". European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  2. Ammon, Andrea (1996). Lebensqualität, Befindlichkeit und psychosoziale Situation unter einer neuen palliativen Therapie von Lebermetastasen: fünf Falldokumentationen (Thesis) (in German). München. OCLC 637712417.
  3. Eurosurveillance editorial team (2017). "Third Director of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control takes office". Eurosurveillance. 22 (25): 30560. doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2017.22.25.30560. PMC 5490457. PMID 28662765.
  4. "Dr Andrea Ammon takes up office as ECDC Director". European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. 2017-06-14. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  5. Breugelmans, J. Gabrielle; Zucs, Phillip; Porten, Klaudia; Broll, Susanne; Niedrig, Matthias; Ammon, Andrea; Krause, Gérard (2004). "SARS Transmission and Commercial Aircraft". Emerging Infectious Diseases. 10 (8): 1502–1503. doi:10.3201/eid1008.040093. ISSN 1080-6040. PMC 3320400. PMID 15503396.
  6. "Germany strengthens role at Euro CDC (European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control)". 2005-06-10. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  7. Ammon, Andrea; Faensen, D. (2009-02-01). "Surveillance von Infektionskrankheiten auf europäischer Ebene". Bundesgesundheitsblatt - Gesundheitsforschung - Gesundheitsschutz (in German). 52 (2): 176–182. doi:10.1007/s00103-009-0759-y. ISSN 1437-1588. PMID 19194679. S2CID 27330174.
  8. A, Amato-Gauci; A, Ammon (2008-06-26). "The Surveillance of Communicable Diseases in the European Union--a Long-Term Strategy (2008-2013)". Euro Surveillance. 13 (26). PMID 18761915.
  9. Authorelena.teagno (2020-04-28). "Andrea Ammon". The State of the Union. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  10. "ESCAIDE 2014!" (PDF). ESCAIDE. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  11. "Andrea Ammon elected as new ECDC director". European Union of General Practitioners (UEMO). 24 March 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  12. "Director Andrea Ammon". European Commission - European Commission. Retrieved 2020-05-22.
  13. "Dr Andrea Ammon elected Director for 2017-2022". European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). 21 Mar 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  14. "Dr Andrea Ammon takes up office as ECDC Director". European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). 14 June 2017. Retrieved 14 March 2020.
  15. "As Tuberculosis Cases Decline in Europe, HIV/TB Coinfections Rise". contemporaryclinic.pharmacytimes.com. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  16. Boffey, Daniel (2020-05-20). "Europe should brace for second wave, says EU coronavirus chief". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  17. Wheaton, Sarah (2020-04-08). "'Nothing would have prevented' virus spread, says health agency chief". POLITICO. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
  18. "UK behind most European states in tackling coronavirus, says EU agency". the Guardian. 2020-05-04. Retrieved 2020-05-21.
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