Influenza, SARS-CoV-2 and RSV activity in EU/EEA Member States continue to decrease or remain stable at low levels. Cases, including severe infections, can still occur and it therefore remains essential to continue testing patients presenting with severe acute respiratory symptoms in order to guide treatment and inform epidemiological assessments.
Yellow fever (YF) is a mosquito-borne infection, distributed in west, central and east Africa and in South America. The disease can cause a wide spectrum of symptoms, from mild to fatal. In severe cases there may be spontaneous haemorrhage. Mortality of these clinical cases can be as high as 80%, on a par with Ebola, Marburg and other haemorrhagic viral infections.
The ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) is a weekly bulletin for epidemiologists and health professionals on active public health threats. This issue covers the period 3-9 January 2021 and includes updates on COVID-19, yellow fever, and influenza.
For 2018, EU/EEA countries reported 13 travel-related cases of yellow fever. The cases were reported by France (7), Germany (2), Czechia (1), the Netherlands (1), Romania (1) and the United Kingdom(1). The case reported by the Netherlands acquired the infection in Senegal or Gambia. All other cases acquired the infection in Brazil. This was the highest number of yellow fever cases ever reported in the EU/EEA in one year. In the previous four years, only one case was reported: the Netherlands reported an imported case with a travel history to Suriname.
This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 29 September-5 October 2019 and includes updates on Ebola virus disease, extensively drug-resistant Klebsiella pneumoniae, mass gathering monitoring (Japan, Rugby World Cup 2019), Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus, Plasmodium cynomolgi infection, poliomyelitis, West Nile virus, and yellow fever.