Health for all: equity challenges in accessing essential health services (from ESCAIDE 2025)

Topic outline

• Health for all: equity challenges in accessing essential health services

  Health for all: equity challenges in accessing essential health services

  This session was held as a part of ESCAIDE 2025, ECDC's annual conference on applied infectious disease epidemiology. 

  Want to know more?

  You can find more information about ESCAIDE here: https://www.escaide.eu, and about ECDC's work here: https://ecdc.europa.eu.
• Objectives

  Objectives

  After completing this activity, participants should be able to:

  • Convey a greater understanding and cultural sensitivity for the situation of vulnerable groups, through telling stories and giving examples of the issues and problems they face.
  • List some practical actions and approaches that epidemiologists and public health officials can adopt in their daily work to better meet the needs of vulnerable populations.
• Watch the session

  Watch the session

  
  
• Summary of the content

  Summary of the content

  Summary of the content

  This presentation is part of a plenary session held at ESCAIDE 2025, titled ‘Health for all: equity challenges in accessing essential health services’. Access to preventive and essential healthcare remains unequal across Europe, with some populations facing persistent barriers due to stigma, policy inconsistencies, financial constraints, and structural obstacles. These disparities are particularly visible in key public health areas where certain communities experience systematic exclusion from services.

  This session features presentations from panellists who will examine how health inequities manifest, and explore how data, research, and practice can address them. The discussion will focus on three areas: combination prevention and PrEP access, vaccination inequities, and healthcare for migrant and displaced populations affected by re-emerging infectious diseases like tuberculosis and diphtheria. Speakers will present practical examples of inclusive approaches, targeted services, and people-centred systems that support health for everyone.

  Chairs (learn more about the chairs on the ESCAIDE website)

  • Miłosz Parczewski – Head of Department Infectious and Tropical Diseases and Acquired Immunodeficiency, Pomeranian Medical University, Poland
  • Nadine Zeitlmann – Senior epidemiologist, Robert Koch Institute, Germany

  
  

  Speakers (learn more about the speakers on the ESCAIDE website)

  • Viviane Bremer – Head of Division for HIV/AIDS, STI and Blood-borne Infections, Robert Koch Institute, Germany
  • Susan Hahné – Senior Epidemiologist , National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, Netherlands
  • Adrian Stoica – Senior medical epidemiologist, Arges County Directorate of Public Health, Romania
• Additional resources

  Additional resources
  • URLCheck other ESCAIDE materials on Learning Portal
• Contacts

  Contacts

  For more information about ESCAIDE, please see www.escaide.eu, or contact the ESCAIDE team at escaide.conference@ecdc.europa.eu. 

  If you have questions regarding other training initiatives please contact: courses@ecdc.europa.eu.

  If you have technical issues please contact the ECDC Service Desk at servicedesk@ecdc.europa.eu.

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