Landesgesundheitsamt Baden-Württemberg (LGA)

Contact person

Christiane Wagner-Wiening

DE-70191 - Stuttgart

Germany

christiane.wagner-wiening@rps.bwl.de

Tel. +49 711 904 39504

Fax. +49 711 904 35050

Description of the institute

The Landesgesundheitsamt (LGA, State Health Office) is situated in Stuttgart, the capital of the German federal State of Baden-Württemberg (population: 10.9 million). It is an administrative unit of the District Government of Stuttgart. The Institute has 6 departments with approximately 180 employees. The Department of Health Protection and Epidemiology comprises 12 staff members and forms the State Centre for the Surveillance of Notifiable Diseases according to Germany’s National Infection Protection Act. Surveillance is conducted in cooperation with the 38 local public health offices.

• Surveillance of communicable diseases (processing of more than 30,000 disease notifications per year), including analysis of data, online reporting and communication with news media
• Preparedness for and response to public health emergencies by communicable diseases (e.g.bioterrorism, bio-hazards, pandemic influenza)
• Vaccination strategies
• Conducting outbreak investigations
• Conducting epidemiological studies
• Risk assessment, expert advice and support for local health authorities
• Teaching of public health officers and other health care professionals
• Writing press releases communicable disease issues

There is a close cooperation within the Institute with the Department of Infectious Diseases and Hygiene and its laboratories for microbiology, including the German National Consulting Laboratory for Q Fever. Good cooperation is also established with the institutions of the Food Safety and Vet-erinarian Authority offering excellent opportunities for research and outbreak investigation. The LGA is WHO Collaborating Centre for Housing and Health. Networking between working groups of medicine, veterinary medicine and infection biology is established.

Training opportunities

EPIET fellows will be involved in the day-to-day surveillance activities. The LGA offers a wide spectrum of training opportunities and projects in infectious diseases, besides foodborne and vaccine-preventable diseases. Outbreak investigations with local public health authorities are one of the main priorities during the PAE training.

Baden-Württemberg (BW) is an endemic area for several zoonotic infections like Hanta virus, Q fever, Tularemia and Tick-borne encephalitis. The study of these infections is a main focus of the Institute and comprises spatial analysis, investigation of the influence of climatic and habitat factors and seroepidemiological studies.

The LGA is partner of EPI-RHIN, an expert network for the cross-border exchange of information on infectious diseases and health reporting mandated by the German-French-Swiss Upper Rhine Conference. Members of EPIRHIN are representatives of local public health units of the districts bordering the River Rhine in the 3 countries and also representatives of the regional health offices. Working languages in the network are French and German. After the occurrence of the invasive mosquito Aedes albopictus in different regions of the Upper Rhine Rift several activities was started in 2015 in order to develop surveillance and control guidelines for Aedes albopictus and imported arthropod virus infections in humans.

The fellow will share an office with another staff member or fellow. The work place is equipped with a network PC, full internet access and an office telephone. There is a library with access to literature covering topics on public health and infectious diseases. The LGA closely cooperates with the Robert Koch-Institute (RKI) which allows the participation in weekly journal clubs, academic sessions and teaching activities of the RKI.

An EPIET fellow at the LGA will also have the opportunity to enroll in the Master of Science in Applied Epidemiology programme which is organised in collaboration between the Charité University and the Robert Koch-Institute in Berlin.

Training supervision

Main supervisor: Dr. Christiane Wagner-Wiening M.Sc., virologist,

Supporting supervisors (project dependent): Dr. Dorothee Lohr M.Sc., Shilpi Ramanan, Prof. Dr. Iris Zöllner

Language requirements

While the LGA provides an English dialogue work environment, a working knowledge of the German language is strongly advisable for communication with local public health offices and patients. Knowledge of French would be an asset in order to participate in the cross-border EPI-RHIN network, but is not required. Stuttgart offers many opportunities for language courses in German.

Training history

Number of EPIET/PAE fellows trained at institute: Eleven (2006, 2007, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016)

Number of EPIET/PAE fellows currently under training: One (graduating 2020)

Number of PAE/EPIET alumni working at institute: Four

Visit the website (Landesgesundheitsamt BW - Startseite)

Selected outbreak investigations/projects performed by fellows from 2013 – 2018

o Outbreak of Clostridium perfringens in a hospital setting, Baden-Württemberg 2013

o Epidemiology of hantavirus in Baden-Württemberg 2012-2013 (network project)

o Public Health management of invasive meningococcal disease in Baden-Württemberg: Implementation of

o recommended guidance and associated costs

o Surveillance system for MRSA in Baden-Württemberg – Five years since its introduction, 2014

o Epidemiology of Tularaemia in South West Germany 2001-2013

o Epidemiology of severe Clostridium difficile cases in Baden-Württemberg 2007-2014

o Cluster of patients with multidrug resistant Klebsiella pneumonia in a neurological early rehabilitation unit,

o South West Germany 2014

o Hepatitis E transmissions via blood products: an underreported source of infection in Germany

o Pseudo-outbreak of Clostridium perfringens in a hospital setting, Baden-Württemberg 2013

o Risk factors for Q fever infection and illness, South West Germany 2014

o Early warning system for Hantavirus in Baden-Württemberg

o Varicella zoster, Mumps, Pertussis and Rubella surveillance in Baden-Württemberg after enactment of

o mandatory notification 2013-2014

o Rapid risk assessment on Hepatitis A after consumption of buttermilk berry cake (RASFF, April 2014)

o Increase of Listeria PFGE-pattern 13a/54 in Southwest Germany – finding the possible source of a prolonged

o outbreak from 2012 to 2015.

o Q-Fever in a hospital setting, Baden-Württemberg 2015

o Study of Factors influencing measles vaccination rates of preschool children - Feedback of Social Medical

o Assistants about parents´ attitudes towards measles vaccination in Baden-Württemberg

o Outbreak of Mycoplasma pneumoniae infection in a school in Baden Württemberg, Germany, 2014-2015

o General Practitioners and Pediatricians’ perceptions, beliefs and attitudes towards vaccination in Baden-Württemberg, 2016

o An outbreak of BoNT/E botulism in Germany and Spain associated with the consumption of dried roach, November to December 2016

o MDR TB cluster among asylumseekers arriving in Europe from the Horn of Africa 2016/2017

o TB surveillance in Baden-Württemberg, with a focus on UMAs 2010-2017

o Development of a guideline for retrospective case-finding of congenital rubella syndrome cases in EU/EEA countries 2017

o Infant pertussis in Baden-Württemberg: Investigating clinical severity, maternal knowledge of pertussis and household vaccination practices 2017-2018

o Enhanced surveillance of carbapenem resistent Enterobacter and Acinetobacter in Baden-Württemberg

Other

Current PAE fellow will be happy to answer your questions:

Dr. Maylin Meinke; maylin.meinke@rps.bwl.de