For 2018, 63 cases of diphtheria were reported to ECDC; 62 due to toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae or C. ulcerans and one case with an unknown pathogen. The highest proportion of C. ulcerans cases was among adults 65 years and over, whereas C. diphtheriae cases were more common in younger age groups. Among the C. diphtheriae cases, 60% were reported as imported. High vaccination coverage is crucial to prevent diphtheria.
For 2019, EU/EEA countries reported five human Lyssavirus infections. Four human cases of travel-related rabies were reported by Italy, Latvia, Spain and Norway with exposure in Tanzania, India, Morocco and the Philippines, respectively. One locally-acquired fatal case of European bat lyssavirus (EBLV-1) infection was reported by France.
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.
This report provides an analysis of the external quality assessment (EQA) for the antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) performance of laboratories participating in the European Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance Network (EARS-Net) in 2019. A total of 952 laboratories (1–95 per country) from 30 EU/EEA countries participated in the EQA exercise.
Rabies is a deadly disease and endemic in over 100 countries. It causes around 59,000 human deaths annually, the vast majority in Asia and Africa. There are safe and effective human vaccines for pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis. With a prompt and proper post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), exposed people have a survival rate close to 100%.
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.