First country visit in Lithuania

On May 27–28, experts from the European Reference Laboratory for Legionella (EURL-PH-LEGI) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) visited the National Public Health Laboratory in Vilnius, Lithuania (NVSPL).

The purpose of the visit was to promote the implementation of genomic surveillance tools in Lithuania. To achieve this goal, discussions focused on strengthening national-level collaboration and initiating dialogue regarding the referal of clinical samples to the national reference laboratory with key stakeholders in Legionnaires' Disease (LD) surveillance. The meeting also included an evaluation of Legionella spp. culture isolation methods and discussions on supporting the analysis of sequencing results.

The following experts participated in the visit:

• Prof. Sophie Jarraud (France) – Senior clinical microbiologist and researcher with extensive experience in Legionella diagnostics, outbreak investigations, molecular biology, and next-generation sequencing (NGS). She is also co-responsible for the “GenEPII” sequencing platform in Lyon;
• Dr. Maria Scaturro (Italy) – Senior scientist at the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (ISS) with over 20 years of experience working with Legionella and strong expertise in molecular typing and advanced bioinformatics tools;
• Maximilian Riess – ECDC expert.

During the visit, NVSPL staff had the opportunity to discuss important issues related to LD diagnostics, theoretical and practical aspects of laboratory diagnosis, and recent developments in the field. The experts visited the laboratories, assessed existing workflows, presented best practices, and provided recommendations on sample transportation, storage, and laboratory methods.

The visit program included the following activities:

• Presentations by NVSPL staff on the epidemiological situation of LD in Lithuania and on laboratory testing results, followed by discussions on these topics;
• Review and discussion of Legionella culture sequencing, data analysis, and comparison results carried out by specialists from the Molecular Biology Research Unit;
• Discussion of ECDC activities related to molecular and genomic surveillance of LD;
• Discussion of important pre-analytical and analytical aspects of laboratory diagnostics;
• Assessment and evaluation of diagnostic capacity (culture and PCR methods);
• Online meeting with national stakeholders in LD surveillance to encourage the referal of clinical samples;
• Presentation of expert recommendations.

NVSPL website article.