Evaluating health complaints in returning travellers through a sentinel surveillance system does not always reflect the spectrum of health problems that occur during travel. In this paper, the comparison of cohort surveys and sentinel surveillance data is used to better describe the epidemiology of health complaints during and after travel.
This interdisciplinary meeting focuses on the question of which factors impact risk perceptions regarding vaccination decisions in the specific context of the Internet. Moreover, it will discuss how risks and risk negations should be communicated on the Internet.
On the occasion of World Hand Hygiene Day, 5th May, ECDC is releasing new web pages dedicated to the Healthcare-associated Infections Surveillance Network (HAI-Net) – a European network for HAI surveillance, coordinated by ECDC.
Using surveillance data obtained from 21,888 imported Plasmodium falciparum cases in France during 1996-2003, factors independently associated with severe malaria (832 cases; ≈3.8%) were older age, European origin, travel to eastern Africa, absence of chemoprophylaxis, initial visit to a general practitioner, time to diagnosis of 4 to 12 days, and diagnosis during the fall-winter season.
This study describes the outcome of 25 travellers with severe malaria who returned from malaria-endemic regions and were treated at 7 centres in Europe with intravenous artesunate. Among these 25 patients, one child and 24 adults (mean ± SD age 44.1 ± 16.1 years), 10 patients received the dosing regimen for artesunate initially recommended by WHO and 11 received artesunate, 2.4 mg/kg/dose.
The European network for arthropod vector surveillance for human public health (VBORNET), funded by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, holds its second annual general meeting at the Institute of Tropical Medicine in Antwerp, Belgium, on 18-20 April 2011
An event that brings together expertise from such areas as social marketing, the behavioural sciences, strategic communications, health promotion, community engagement, policy development and advocacy.
This study establishes whether the immunisation with hexavalent vaccines increased the short term risk of sudden unexpected deaths (SUD) in infants in Italy, following the signal of an association between vaccination in the second year of life with a hexavalent vaccine and SUD in the two days following vaccination reported in Germany in 2003.
Current trends show both progress and challenges in fighting the spread of drug-resistant bacteria in Europe according to ECDC’s analysis on the state of antibiotic resistance in Europe. Since 2008, ECDC has been coordinating the European Antibiotic Awareness Day (EAAD) – a European health initiative that promotes prudent use of antibiotics. On the occasion of the World Health Day 2011, ECDC Director Marc Sprenger presented the ‘Situation update on antibiotic resistance’ to the European Parliament in Strasbourg.
In his speech today at the Informal Meeting of EU Ministers responsible for health, ECDC Director Marc Sprenger highlighted these challenges and encouraged countries to maintain investment in public health and to work toward smarter and better cooperation.