Role of Dietitians in the fight against COVID-19

We recently launched our Briefing Paper 'Role of Dietitians in the fight against COVID-19'. This briefing outlines the core role that dietitians are playing in the response to COVID-19, from the frontline in acute care to population level advice and support in acute community care, primary care, food service and education.

Make sure to look out out for more information on this briefing paper and how you can use it in your respective countries in our special edition Newsflash next week.

Read the paper in full.

Updates to our COVID-19 response hub

We are continuing to update our web pages in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Our member associations have produced a number of resources aimed at both dietitians and the general public. To help you find what you need, we have organised them into the following categories:

• Public health nutrition advice for the Coronavirus pandemic
• Critical care - nutritional support while the body fights infection
• Rehabilitation
• Work of dietitians, policies
• Webinars

We will continue to update these pages as we receive them. Please submit any resources that you may have produced in response to COVID-19 Esta dirección de correo electrónico está siendo protegida contra los robots de spam. Necesita tener JavaScript habilitado para poder verlo..

The next EFAD webinar in relation to Covid-19 will take place on Monday 25 May at 19:00 CET- 'Nutritional Rehabilitation after Covid-19 infection: Homeward-bound after hospital discharge’. The webinar will discuss the need for nutritional care after Covid-19 hospital discharge and provide practical guidance on nutritional care pathways in the community for these individuals. Registration to open soon!

Register for the next ENDietS webinar

The next ENDietS webinar will take place on 28 May, 7pm (CEST) - 'Fuelling for the work required: the art and science of carbohydrate periodisation', hosted by James Morton, Professor of Exercise Metabolisms at Liverpool John Moores University.

The webinar will discuss the concept of ensuring high carbohydrate availability before, during and after competition in order to promote performance and recover. They will also outline the translation of science to practice to achieve the nutritional objectives of CHO periodisation.

Register now.

EU-wide food label should not fall to the back-burner

Advocates for an EU-wide mandatory Nutri-score food label have called on the European Commission not to overlook the long-awaited harmonisation of front-of-pack nutritional labelling, despite the focus on tackling the COVID-19 pandemic.

In a letter addressed to Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides, a coalition of more than 40 food stakeholders reiterated their call for a legislative proposal to introduce the Nutri-score as compulsory for all food manufacturers.

Read more.

ONCA-community Forum on Nutrition & COVID-19

Optimal Nutritional Care For All (ONCA) have launched the ONCA-community Forum to discuss Nutrition & COVID-19 in real-time within the ONCA community and beyond. It is first and foremost a place for discussion and exchange between HCPs, patients and others, but it has also proven to be a useful place for organisations to publish their information on COVID and nutrition.

Access the forum.

ONCA featured in Clinical Nutrition article

Ten years ago, European health care professional societies, health associations and members of the European Parliament discussed the necessary and urgent actions needed to improve access, initiation and follow up nutritional care for European citizens. As a response to this, in 2014 the Optimal Nutritional Care for All (ONCA) campaign was launched under the leadership of the European Nutritional for Health Alliance and its members.

Find out about ONCA and its success.

World Health Day

Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, Stella Kyriakides marked World Health Day 2020 on 7 April by paying tribute to healthcare workers. She also issued new EU guidelines to support them in their work: "Today, as every day, our thoughts are also with the brave healthcare workers in the EU and around the world. Now, more than ever, we have cause to honour and salute them. To help ease some of this pressure, we have issued practical guidance to Member States to encourage and facilitate cross-border treatment of patients and the deployment of medical staff."

Read more.

European Public Health Week

This week over 130 online events from 31 different countries have taken place across Europe. This year's European Public Health Week (EUPHW) has focused on COVID-19. The remaining themes for the rest of the week are:

• Equal health for all
• Grow old, grow healthy

Visit the EUPHW website to find out more about the week and how you can still get involved!

European Week Against Cancer

European Week Against Cancer (EWAC) will be taking place 25-31 May, and will conclude with the World No Tobacco Day on 31 May. During EWAC cancer charities, European policy-makes and the general public engage in various activities connected to awareness raising about cancer prevention, access to treatment and support for patients and cancer survivors.

Access resources and how you can involved in the week here.

Online course for sustainability

Blekinge Institute of Technology has launched an online course 'Foundations for Strategic Sustainable Development' in which they will teach the global sustainability challenge, and a science based framework that has been developed and improved over 30 years. This Framework for Strategic Sustainable Development offers an operational definition of ecological and social sustainability and a systematic approach to economically beneficial sustainability work.

The course starts 31 August 2020 and runs at half time (50%) until the end of 1 November 2020 and is taught fully online with a one-hour webinar each week plus readings and assignments.

Find out more.