During the 18th International congress of Hydatology (Lisbon), a paper on "evaluation of the economic costs of echinococcosis "was presented at the Symposium "Social and economic importance of echinococcosis". The paper was intended as a working ground for further research and discussion on the item, and was based on information and data from relevant literature, experience of the coordinator and contributions provided by some participants in the network.

The difficulty was stressed to standardize, at the international level, methods capable of evaluating the socio-economic consequences of the disease and the costs/benefits of control action. The need was however emphasized to carry out such evaluations according to local situations and quality and quantity of available data, in order of being able to offer administrators and technicians tools for assessing the efficiency and effectiveness of interventions.

By 1998 it has been decided, therefore, to develop the following activities :

to intensify links with those participants in the network who have given their contributions up to now;

b) to include in the network those who are or have been devoting themselves to the problem and who in Lisbon demonstrated their commitment (especially researchers from the USA, Argentina, Spain, Turkey, Italy);

c) to collaborate in the review of the version of the WHO Guidelines on echinococcosis with regard to socio-economics;

d) to make an evaluation of costs of chemotherapy in man, in collaboration with Dr A. Teggi, coordinator of the network "Long-term evaluation of the chemotherapy in cystic echinococcosis";

A section was prepared on the cost of animal diseases for the pamphlet "La medicina veterinaria presentata ai pubblici amministratori" (Veterinary medicine explained to public administrators) edited by Dr Romano Marabelli, chief of Veterinary Services, and Prof Adriano Mantovani.Within the framework of didactic initiatives, on the 29 January 1998 a day of work has been organised at the post-graduate School on "Animal health and production" of the University of Bologna, Italy, with the participation of R. Baldelli, G. Battelli, G. Garippa, A. Mantovani, A. Siracusano and A. Teggi. Particular emphasis has been placed on the activities of IWGE and of the network as well as on items emerged and discussed at the different sessions of the Lisbon Congress.

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