With over 142 000 people newly diagnosed with HIV in 2014, the WHO European Region recorded the highest number of newly diagnosed infections in one year since the start of reporting in the 1980s. In the countries of the EU/EEA, the HIV epidemic also persists largely unchanged.
On 11 September, authorities in Valencia,Spain acknowledged that the case of Chikungunya reported 3 August 2015 is a false positive. Laboratory investigation conducted by the National Reference laboratory in Madrid did not confirm the initial results.
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.
Men who have sex with men (MSM) are the only key population in the countries of the European Union and European Economic Area that has not seen a decline in new HIV infections during the last decade.
The results of two clinical studies, PROUD and IPERGAY, suggests that the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for men who have sex with men (MSM) is an effective HIV prevention tool for 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.
ECDC releases today an update of its tick-borne diseases communication toolkit to support public health authorities in devising communication initiatives as part of their tick-borne diseases prevention programmes.