A report in the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) MMWR this week describes the investigation of mild respiratory illness among swine and people at a county fair in Indiana, USA between 8 and 14 July 2012. This is an important report as it is very clearly documents simultaneous detection of H3N2v influenza viruses in humans and swine in close contact.
On 25 and 26 of July, two additional cases of soft-tissue anthrax among injecting drug users have been reported from the United Kingdom and Denmark. The genetic typing of the strains related to these cases is ongoing.
Influenza pandemics occur when new influenza viruses appear that transmit efficiently between humans and to which a substantial proportion of the population is susceptible
Carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae (CRE) or carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) are highly resistant to antibiotics, leaving only a few options for treatment of infected patients, and thus represent a serious threat to public health.
The annual meeting of the healthcare-associated infections surveillance network (HAI-Net) and of the HAI-Net coordination group took place in Stockholm on 19-21 June 2012.
On 30 May - 1 June 2012, ECDC and the WHO Regional Office for Europe (WHO/Europe) jointly held their second Annual Influenza Working Meeting in Warsaw, Poland. The main work undertaken by delegates in over 20 sessions and 70 talks and discussions was reviewing progress in the last 12 months and agreeing on the work for the coming year.
WHO “SAVE LIVES: Clean Your Hands” is an annual campaign that makes part of major global effort to support healthcare workers to improve hand hygiene practices in healthcare settings, and thus support the prevention of often life-threatening healthcare-associated infections.
Since November 2011, Schmallenberg virus has been reported in cattle, sheep and goats in Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, the United Kingdom, France, Luxembourg, Italy and more recently in Spain.
This workshop enabled all to agree on the relevance of EPIS VPD to be used as a platform for the reporting and monitoring of measles outbreak in the EU, agree on the type of information to be reported, the nature of outbreaks to be notified and the further usage by ECDC (e.g. European Monthly Measles Monitoring1) and other Member States of data that will be shared through EPIS VPD by countries.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) have published the second joint EU report on antimicrobial resistance in zoonotic bacteria affecting humans, animals and food.