ERS Assembly 10: Respiratory infections

The respiratory infections Assembly covers all issues of pulmonary and respiratory infections with a strong focus on pneumonia and antibiotic resistance, bronchiectasis, tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacteria. This Assembly is one of the largest scientific assemblies of the ERS. Airway and pulmonary infections play an important role for outpatient, clinical and intensive care medicine in children and adults and the topics covered by the Assembly include bacterial, viral, fungal and parasitic infections. Prevention of infections and the emergence of antibiotic resistance play an important role in its scientific and educational activities and in interactions with the other scientific assemblies in the ERS. Members of the Assembly, especially the juniors, are engaged in educational activities through the ERS school and in large collaborative research networks including:
  • The European Multicentre Bronchiectasis Audit and Research Collaboration (EMBARC) www.bronchiectasis.eu
  • The European Network for ICU-Related Respiratory Infections (ENIRRI)
  • The TBNET www.tb-net.org
There are three Groups within Assembly 10:
  • Respiratory infections and bronchiectasis

    Group 10.01
    Chair: Thomas Wilkinson
    Secretary: Markus Fally

    Respiratory infections are associated with increased morbidity, high health cost and in specific groups of patients with increased mortality (elderly, comorbidities, immunocompromised patients etc).

    For this reason, the major targets of Respiratory infections Assembly 10.01 of ERS are:

    • education on early adequate and appropriate treatment of those infections, such as guidelines and networks;
    • prevention, including vaccination projects;
    • and research activities.
  • Tuberculosis and non-tuberculous mycobacterial diseases

    Group 10.02
    Chair: Olha Konstantynovska
    Secretary: Fusun Öner Ayşegül Eyüboğlu

    Tuberculosis (TB) and other mycobacterial (NTM) diseases are the topics of this Group. Despite a global fall in TB incidence, Europe is noted for its high numbers of TB in its capital cities, related to migration. The eastern part of the European region also has the highest and fastest growing incidence of multidrug- and extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (M/XDRTB) of any part of the world. Western Europe has a low incidence of TB and therefore is ideally placed to investigate latent tuberculosis. HIV-associated mycobacterial diseases remain an important topic for this Assembly.

    Recent advances in tests, such as the IFN-g release assays, led to a resurgent interest in clinical research. This has been mirrored by the number of abstracts presented at our annual ERS Congress and journal articles in the European Respiratory Journal. New drugs are being explored in clinical trials. Advances in genetic sequencing and the role of the “omics” (e.g. genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolomics) are now being applied to clinical mycobacterial disease and promise an expanding role of this group in the life of the European Respiratory Society.

    We encourage scientists to propose new research advances to the Society and we encourage all clinicians to take part in a clinical study, so that the scientific advances of our day can be translated into effective treatment and monitoring of our patients.

  • Adult CF

    Group 10.03
    Chair: Andrea Gramegna
    Secretary: Maria Do Pilar Azevedo De Almeida Cardim

Join this assembly

You can join this assembly by selecting it as your main group or one of your optional groups in myERS. Only ERS members can join this assembly. Selections can be changed at any time.

Join the Respiratory infections assembly