ECDC and WHO Europe jointly release “MESSAGE - MEaSles and rubella Self Assessment GEnerating tool” for public health experts, to facilitate assessment of the progress made towards measles and rubella elimination.
In recent years there have been a series of arguments and findings suggesting that Statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) which used widely to lower cholesterol levels may also be important in reducing the risk associated with severe infective conditions.
The heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) targets seven of the more than 92 pneumococcal serotypes. Concerns have been raised that non-vaccine serotypes (NVTs) could increase in prevalence and reduce the benefits of vaccination. Indeed, among asymptomatic carriers, the prevalence of NVTs has increased substantially, and consequently, there has been little or no net change in the bacterial carriage prevalence.
This study updates previous work on modelling the incidence of varicella and Herpes Zoster (HZ) following the introduction of childhood varicella vaccination.
Between 19 January and 17 February 2011, 10 cases of measles (eight laboratory-confirmed and two probable) were reported in Oslo, with the majority of cases in a mainly unvaccinated Somali community.
In the context of an active nationwide surveillance network, this study describes pneumoccocal meningitis in children aged from 1 day to 15 years during a 8 year study period (2001-2008) in France. 951 pneumoccocal meningitis cases were reported among 3312 children with bacterial meningitis. T