The recent floods in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, and Serbia caused substantial damage. Following the floods, there is a risk of increased transmission of vector-borne infections to the populations.
This rapid risk assessment examines the implications of the temporary recommendations for EU Member States and assesses whether the developments leading to the declaration of a PHEIC represent an increased risk of WPV importation to Member States of the European Union.
In October 2012, ECDC conducted a first mission to Madeira to set up an epidemiological surveillance system based on information supplied by Madeira’s public healthcare system.
This document assesses the risk associated with the outbreak of Zika virus infections, considered as an emerging disease, to public health in the EU/EEA and the risk to EU/EEA citizens in order to anticipate future developments.
The confirmed circulation of wild-type poliovirus (WPV) in Israel and the outbreak of poliomyelitis in Syria mean that there is a high risk the disease will be reintroduced into the EU/EEA.
At the request of the European Commission, ECDC performed a risk assessment after six cases of wound botulism were reported in Norway among people who had injected heroin. As this is an ongoing problem, some relevant measures are proposed for consideration by other EU/EEA Member States.
Following the announcement by WHO of a cluster of cases of acute flaccid paralysis in Syria, ECDC conducted a risk assessment and concludes that this does pose a risk that polio might be imported to the EU. The Risk Assessment includes number of recommendations for EU Member States.
The EU/EEA countries and the rest of the WHO European Region, have been officially polio-free since 2002. However, wild-type polio virus 1 (WPV1) has been isolated in sewage and in the faeces of asymptomatic carriers in Israel since February 2013. In this risk assessment ECDC looks at the potential impact of this public health event on the risk of poliovirus being imported and re-established into circulation in EU/EEA.
West Nile virus (WNV) is an emerging pathogen whose ecology and epidemiology extend across multiple interfaces. As the epidemiology and transmission cycle of WNV is complex, assessing the risk of WNV being transmitted to humans is not always straightforward. Therefore, the WNV risk assessment tool has been developed to provide operational guidance in support of the risk assessment process.