An outbreak of chikungunya in the Caribbean region was reported from the French part of the island of Saint Martin on 6 December 2013. It is the first time that autochthonous transmission of the virus has been documented in the Americas.
It is the first time that autochthonous transmission of the virus has been documented in the Americas. Clinicians and travel medicine clinics should remain vigilant regarding imported dengue and chikungunya cases from the Caribbean.
As of 19 December 2013, the local health authorities of the French Caribbean Islands reported 26 confirmed and 12 probable autochthonous cases of chikungunya on the island of Saint Martin.
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Food Safety Authority launched their annual report on zoonoses and food-borne outbreaks.
The study design and analysis controlled for influence of potentially confounding trends, such as improvement of day-care carriage and decreasing prevalence of smoking during the study period.
ECDC publishes today a report surveying the prevalence of Tick Borne Encephalitis (TBE) in Europe. The report has epidemiological data from 2000 to 2010 for 20 out of 30 EU/EFTA countries. The data shows that a number of key risk areas can be found in Europe in terms of geographic spread, seasonal peaks and at-risk age groups. Most countries in Europe have surveillance systems although some vary which greatly impedes comparability and analysis of TBE.
On 5 September 2012 the European Commission decision amending Decision 2000/96/EC as regards tick-borne encephalitis was published. As a result tick-borne encephalitis is added to the list of diseases to be covered by epidemiological surveillance within the Community.
The study compares the incidence and serotype distribution of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) for pneumococcal meningitis and non-meningitis IPD in children from 2007 to 2010 with reference to the pre-vaccination period from 1997 to 2001 in Germany.