A measles outbreak in Romania has been ongoing since February 2016 and cases continue to be reported despite ongoing response measures that have been implemented at national level through reinforced vaccination activities. Between 1 January 2016 and 21 April 2017, Romania reported 4 881 cases. In 2016, a number of additional EU/EEA countries reported measles outbreaks, and an increase in the number of cases continues to be observed in 2017. Some previous and ongoing measles outbreaks in other EU countries have been epidemiologically linked to the current outbreak in Romania.
In July 2012, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control initiated a Europe-wide investigation on a Salmonella Stanley outbreak, together with the affected Member States, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Reference Laboratory for Salmonella (EURL Salmonella).
ECDC Director Marc Sprenger had his annual exchange of views with Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) at the European Parliament in Brussels.
Vaccine coverage is high in most European countries (80-95%), however not high enough to prevent large community outbreaks of measles, normally clustered around schools.
ECDC organised a meeting bringing together health care professionals, public health experts and representatives from the civil society to share best practice and discuss practical solutions to current situations of measles outbreaks, particularly in communities of underserved populations.
On 22 June 2012 the Hellenic Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (KEELPNO) reported the first locally acquired case of Plasmodium vivax (P. vivax) malaria, from Marathon area in Attica region, Greece. As of 3 September, KEELPNO has reported 50 cases of malaria since the beginning of 2012 in Greece.
Measles have re-emerged in the EU and the 2015 measles and rubella elimination target date set for Europe was looking progressively more challenging. The meeting aimed to find practical solutions to situation, especially within the WHO measles and rubella elimination target and facing economic crisis challenges.
This large population based sero-epidemiological study describes MMR seroprevalence as a whole and calculates independent predictors for seronegativity for measles, mumps and rubella antibodies in Germany.
A second case of local Plasmodium vivax malaria in Greece was reported on 17 July by KEELPNO, the Hellenic Centre for Disease Prevention and Control. The case concerned a 48 year old female resident of the municipality of Evrotas, Lakonia.