[Editorial] Breaking up is hard to do: Brexit and European science (Lancet Infectious Diseases)

On April 18 the UK Government announced that a general election will be held on June 8, a move precipitated by the vote of the UK electorate in June last year to leave the European Union (EU). Shortly after the general election announcement, the 27th European Congress of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ECCMID) was held in Vienna, Austria. ECCMID is a must-attend event on the conference circuit for this journal. This year`s running--the first since the UK voted to leave the EU--attracted 12 494 attendees from 126 countries, making it arguably the world`s most important infectious diseases meeting.