ECDC Virtual Academy (EVA)

Exercise BEAIVI was a functional exercise, internal to ECDC only, designed to simulate a public health emergency.

The Exercise took place at ECDC from 15^th May 2012 (0800 – 1800) to 16^th May 2012 (0800 – 1600) with a real time escalation of events. The exercise  was suspended overnight as it was deemed unnecessary to achieve the objectives to have continuous play.

The following people took part in the exercise:

• Nominated ECDC staff as participants 
• HPA staff as exercise control and evaluators with support from ECDC colleagues.

In addition, representatives from Germany and France, were invited to observe and evaluate the exercise.

ECDC staff taking part in the exercise were called ‘players’. To ensure maximum participation in the exercise, players were pre-selected and divided between four shifts (two shifts on each day).

Exercise control played the part of any agency or organization outside ECDC. These organizations were the World Health Organization Europe (WHO Euro), Directorate General for Health and Consumers (DG SANCO) and the Ministries of Health of selected European Union Member States.

The exercise was structured into twenty-nine injects divided in 3 blocks that represented 3 simulated scenarios:

1. Scenario one: The first scenario was based around the Euro 2012 championships in Ukraine. During the simulation an outbreak of measles, diarrhoea and polio were suspected.
2. Scenario two: The second scenario was based on a potential H5N1 outbreak amongst French non-governmental workers in Cairo. The aim was to force the management team players to consider how to respond to two health emergencies simultaneously.
3. The third scenario was a business continuity scenario impacting directly on ECDC's ability to function.