The Institut Pasteur, through its Invasive Bacterial Infections Unit led by Professor Muhamed-Kheir Taha, has recently been appointed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) as the coordinating institution for the Invasive Bacterial Diseases Laboratory Network (IBD-LabNet). This leadership role is formalized through a contract awarded by ECDC for coordination of the network of dedicated laboratories in the European Union (EU) and European Economic Area (EEA) for the surveillance of invasive bacterial diseases.

IBD-LabNet, established in June 2025, is the laboratory component of the broader European Invasive Bacterial Disease Surveillance Network, or EU-IBD, coordinated by ECDC. The Institut Pasteur has been awarded scientific and operational responsibility for IBD-LabNet. It will lead the consortium and oversee the effective implementation of the activities planned by ECDC.

With ECDC taking on an increasing role in supporting preparedness and response capabilities in view of cross-border threats, the aim of the EU-IBD network is to develop integrated, harmonized, quality surveillance of invasive bacterial infections caused by Neisseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae. The focus is on achieving close interoperability between epidemiological, microbiological and genomic data so that it can be used to guide risk assessments, public health recommendations and vaccine policies at European level.

To this end, the IBD-Lab sub-network has been established to coordinate the activities of national reference laboratories in EU and EEA Member States. The consortium comprises twelve European reference laboratories from twelve countries: Instituto de salud Carlos III (Spain), Folkehelseinstituttet (Norway), Instituto Nacional de Saude dr. Ricardo Jorge (Portugal), Instituto Superiore di Sanita (Italy), Narodowy Instytut Lekow (Poland), University Hospital Orebro (Sweden), University of West Attica (Panepistimio Dytikis Attikis) (Greece), Sciensano (Belgium), Statens Serum Institut (Denmark), Stichting Amsterdam UMC (Netherlands), Terveyden Ja Hyvinvoinnin Laitos (Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare) (Finland) and the Institut Pasteur (France), leader of the consortium.

The main tasks of IBD-LabNet are:

• To coordinate laboratory surveillance at European level, including microbiological and genomic characterization (through whole genome sequencing) of the three microbes mainly responsible for bacterial meningitis (N. meningitidis, H. influenzae type B and S. pneumoniae).
   
• To assess and improve the performance of national laboratories, especially by implementing standardized external quality assessment (EQA) in the 30 EU/EEA Member States.
   
• To develop laboratory capabilities and expertise through training, skills development and targeted support for countries.
   
• To provide structured scientific and technical support for the ECDC, especially in terms of preparedness, early detection and response to the threat of invasive bacterial disease outbreaks.
   

Image

"By leading the ECDC's IBD-Lab, our unit at the Institut Pasteur is contributing its cutting-edge expertise in microbiology and genomic surveillance to a collective European response, with the aim of improving early detection, understanding and prevention of these severe infections."

Muhamed-Kheir Taha