Joint action European partnership for action against cancer.

Cancer is a major European public health issue and represents the second most important cause of death and morbidity in Europe. Moreover, as a result of constant advances in medicine, medical technology and other sciences, and due to improvements in economic circumstances, cancer survival rates are increasing in Europe and prevalent cases (i.e.

Report on EU-USA workshop: how systems biology can advance cancer research (27 October 2008).

The main conclusion is that systems biology approaches can indeed advance cancer research, having already proved successful in a very wide variety of cancer-related areas, and are likely to prove superior to many current research strategies. Major points include: Systems biology and computational approaches can make important contributions to research and development in key clinical aspects of cancer and of cancer treatment, and should be developed for understanding and application to diagnosis, biomarkers, cancer progression, drug development and treatment strategies. Development of new measurement technologies is central to successful systems approaches, and should be strongly encouraged.

A hospital outbreak of Legionella from a contaminated water supply.

The authors performed a cross-sectional epidemiological survey to investigate the source of a hospital Legionella outbreak originating in contaminated water. Water temperature and air humidity were measured around possible contamination sources. A dead-end pipe was found to contain Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1.

Eighty years of the Slovenian Institute of Public Health: challenges for the future.

Eighty years after the first national public health institution was founded in Slovenia, the Institute of Public Health of the Republic of Slovenia (IPHRS) endeavors to meet ever-growing national demands. With the independence of Slovenia in 1991, new tasks had to be tackled, many of which were initially coupled with typical difficulties of a postcommunist country in transition. Also, increasing demands of the European Union (EU) and other international partners had to be met.