The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control was asked by the European Commission to assess the risk involved in changing the testing requirements for HIV (human immunodeficiency virus), hepatitis B virus (HBV), and hepatitis C virus (HCV) with regard to the quality and safety of non-partner semen donations.
This report shows information submitted by 27 European Union Member States on the occurrence of zoonoses and food-borne outbreaks in 2012, analysed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the European Food Safety Authority
Since publishing the ’Joint ECDC-EFSA rapid outbreak assessment: Outbreak of hepatitis A virus infection in residents and travellers to Italy’ in May, new information has emerged as a result of the epidemiological, microbiological and environmental investigations. Therefore, ECDC has updated its previous assessment.
Since 1 January 2013 there have been 15 laboratory-confirmed cases of hepatitis A (HAV) infection reported in Germany, the Netherlands and Poland. All cases had travelled to the provinces of Trento and Bolzano in northern Italy during the exposure period.
In May 2011, the European Commission asked ECDC to estimate the change in total exposure risk to hepatitis B (HBV), hepatitis C (HCV) and human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) during reproductive cell handling and storage for secondary parties, if the current scheme of testing at each cell donation would change to testing partner donors of reproductive cells once or twice a year.
Following a request from the European Commission in August 2010, ECDC assessed the epidemiological history of Human T-lymphotropic Virus (HTLV) across the world, possible risks of HTLV transmission through transplantation of human tissues and cells, and possible measures to prevent such transmission.