Communicable disease threats report, 13-19 May 2012, week 20

During Week 20, 13-19 May 2012, ECDC monitored several EU and Non-EU public health threats.

A new outbreak of measles was reported in Cork, Ireland with 31 cases of mainly teenagers being infected over the last four weeks. The last two cases are in children in primary school suggesting that the outbreak could be expanding to younger children. The outbreaks in Romania, Spain and the UK are continuing.

Recognising that with increased travel and trade infectious diseases are more likely than ever to travel across borders, ECDC also monitors public health threats outside the EU. This week’s CDTR reports, in particular, that the number of dengue cases in Thailand for the first four months of 2012 are comparable to the same period last year but Mexico has reported more than 2,300 cases of dengue compared to some 930 last year. There have been no reports of autochthonous dengue infections in Europe so far in 2012.