Every year, around 50 000 newly diagnosed cases of hepatitis B and C are reported across Europe but millions are unaware of their infection. Left untreated, hepatitis can cause irreversible liver damage. Hepatitis A is recognised as a re-emerging health threat in Europe.
On the occasion of the tenth anniversary of European Immunization Week, ECDC is releasing a new complement of data, tools, blogs and updates to support public health authorities in their work against vaccine preventable diseases.
Monitoring and responding to HIV and hepatitis C among people who inject drugs is the focus of two new reports from the EU drugs agencies EMCDDA and ECDC.
Prompted by the increase of hantavirus activity in Europe observed in 2012, ECDC report reviewed the preventive measures and communication strategies in European countries.
As of 6 August 2013, the Danish, Finnish, Norwegian and Swedish public health institutes reported 106 cases associated with the hepatitis A virus (HAV) infection outbreak affecting their countries since 1 October 2012. Of these, 64 were confirmed and 42 were probable.
Since publishing the ’Joint ECDC-EFSA rapid outbreak assessment: Outbreak of hepatitis A virus infection in residents and travellers to Italy’ in May, new information has emerged as a result of the epidemiological, microbiological and environmental investigations. Therefore, ECDC has updated its previous assessment.