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Following reports of a human fatality due to highly pathogenic avian influenza A(H5N1) virus infection in China’s Guangdong province, the European Commission requested an update to the assessment of risk of human-to-human transmission occurring. ECDC does not consider that there is any change to the previous assessments that the risk for EU/EEA countries is very low.

Following the identification of a novel coronavirus in two patients, both having been in Saudi Arabia albeit three months apart, ECDC has prepared a rapid risk assessment to consider the risk to the public in the EU. A version of this risk assessment was shared with EU and EEA national public health competent bodies and WHO on 24 September.

CDC updated risk assessment concludes that in the absence of evidence of sustained person-to-person transmission outside of household settings, the current facts still point towards a hypothesis of a zoonotic or environmental source with occasional transmission to exposed humans. WHO does not advise any travel or trade restrictions at this point for KSA or Qatar.

New and noteworthy in this update: the retrospective identification of novel coronavirus in biological samples from two fatal cases in Jordan (April 2012) and the results of a joint ECDC/WHO survey which confirms that EU/EEA Member States have an adequate capacity to detect novel coronavirus through their network of national reference laboratories: 18 of 30 in EU/EEA countries are capable of confirming positive screened samples by either ORF1b RT-PCR or other target RT-PCR assays with sequence analysis or whole-genome sequence analysis.

This fourth update of the rapid risk assessment of severe respiratory disease associated with a novel coronavirus (MERS-CoV) was produced in relation to 22 additional cases of laboratory-confirmed infections reported in the last two months.

This second update to ECDC's initial risk assessment concludes that the risk of the disease spreading to Europe via humans or through poultry is still low at this time.

On 31 March 2013, Chinese authorities announced the identification of a novel reassortant A(H7N9) influenza virus isolated from three unlinked cases of severe respiratory disease in eastern China. This is the first time that human infection with avian influenza virus A(H7N9) has been identified.
Since then, human cases have continued to be reported from eastern China. As of 11 April, there were 38 laboratory-confirmed cases including ten deaths reported from four bordering provinces with a concentration of cases in and around Shanghai. Cases occur sporadically, without obvious epidemiological links. There is currently no confirmed human-to-human transmission.

On 31 March 2013, the Chinese authorities announced the identification of a novel influenza A virus, A(H7N9), in three seriously ill people from two provinces presenting with respiratory infections. So far, no epidemiological link has been identified between those three patients. When testing for the influenza virus, the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention identified genes from both A(H7N9) and A(H9N2) viruses, thus indicating a novel reassortant avian influenza A virus. In its initial assessment of the situation, the ECDC rapid risk assessment concludes that the risk of the spread of the virus in Europe can be considered low at this stage.

From 3 February to 9 February 2013, ECDC monitored several on-going public health threats within and outside the European Union

​This assessment is related to the publication of the identification of a new cyclovirus species, tentatively named cyclovirus-Vietnam (CyCV-VN), in cerebrospinal fluid of patients with acute central nervous system infection. However, there are insufficient data to assess the risk for disease occurrence in humans or potential of human-to-human transmission. Further studies should be encouraged in Europe and elsewhere to investigate the possible pathogenicity, epidemiology, and transmission patterns of cycloviruses.