Prompted by the increase of hantavirus activity in Europe observed in 2012, ECDC report reviewed the preventive measures and communication strategies in European countries.
This report describes the epidemiology of invasive bacterial disease due to Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis in EU and EEA Member States in 2010.
In May 2012 a collection of five strains of Haemophilus spp was sent to 28 participating reference laboratories in the IBD-labnet surveillance network for quality assurance testing. The laboratories were asked to characterise the five strains by performing standard laboratory protocols for the methods usually used by the laboratory for: species identification, biotyping and serotyping by serological methods and/or PCR.
The results of this EQA are published in the this report.
The results of this external quality assurance distribution have shown that European Haemophilus reference laboratories differ in the level of characterisation of strains, ranging from simple speciation to full identification and typing. All but two laboratories routinely phenotypically serotype isolates. Fifteen laboratories (52%) performed PCR-based capsular genotyping, 23 laboratories (79%) reported antimicrobial susceptibility testing results.
The US CDC reported an outbreak of Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome (HPS) associated with staying in the ’Signature Tent Cabins’ in the Boystown area of Curry Village at Yosemite National Park, California, USA.
Downloadable Microsoft Excel file containing several tables on separate worksheets based on data collected through ECDC’s The European Surveillance System (TESSy) in 2012.
This report describes the epidemiology of invasive bacterial diseases due to Haemophilus influenzae and Neisseria meningitidis in the European Union Member States in 2008 and 2009. Out of the 30 EU/EEA Member States, 29 submitted data.