European Immunization Week (EIW) is marked across Europe every year in the final week of April. It aims to raise awareness of the importance of immunisation for the general health and well-being of the European and wider population.
In connection with the European Immunization Week, ECDC releases data indicating an increase in cases of vaccine-preventable diseases such as measles and pertussis, after decreased levels during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Since the most recent ECDC rapid risk assessment in 2021, the number of EU/EEA countries reporting hypervirulent Klebsiella pneumoniae (hvKp) sequence type (ST) 23 has increased from four to ten and the number of cases reported to ECDC by the countries, increased from 12 to 143.
A joint study of the National Public Health Organization in Greece (NPHO) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) conducted in 15 Greek hospitals in 2022 sheds light on the rapid spread of carbapenemase-producing, highly drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae sequence type (ST) 39, following its initial documentation in a European-wide genomic survey in 2019.
Since January 2022, and as of 11 August 2023, 281 confirmed diphtheria cases, as per the EU case definition (2022: 224 cases, 2023: 57 cases), and four deaths were reported in the EU/EEA.
Between 2018 and 2020, nearly 20 000 surgical site infections (SSIs) were reported from a total of over 1.2 million surgical procedures in 13 EU/EEA countries participating in ECDC-coordinated SSI surveillance. Over 2 500 hospitals are part of this surveillance network.
A number of European countries (including Ireland, France, the Netherlands, Sweden and the United Kingdom) indicate an increase seen during 2022, particularly since September 2022, in the number of cases of invasive Group A Streptococcus (iGAS) disease among children less than ten years of age.