A new modelling study from RespiCompass, the European respiratory disease modelling hub coordinated by ECDC, indicates that influenza and COVID-19 vaccination programmes markedly reduced hospitalisations among older adults across Europe in the 2024/25 season.
Since the beginning of 2025, and as of 10 December 2025, 14 MERS cases (including three fatalities) have been reported with date of onset in 2025. Among these, 12 cases (including three fatalities) have been reported in Saudi Arabia, and two imported cases have been reported in France
In 2023, 1 895 confirmed cases of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD), including 200 deaths, were reported in 30 European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) countries.
Since the beginning of 2025, and as of 10 December 2025, 14 MERS cases (including three fatalities) have been reported with date of onset in 2025. Among these, 12 cases (including three fatalities) have been reported in Saudi Arabia, and two imported cases have been reported in France.
This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 6-12 December 2025 and includes updates on respiratory virus epidemiology in the EU/EEA, measles, Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS-CoV), West Nile virus, and Marburg virus disease (MVD).
Respiratory viruses are on the rise across the EU/EEA: influenza activity is increasing rapidly and circulating widely, RSV is slowly increasing, while SARS-CoV-2 circulation continues to decrease.
This mid-term revision of ECDC’s ‘Long-term surveillance framework, 2021–2027’ was endorsed by the National Focal Points for Surveillance at their annual meeting on 7 October 2025.
The theme of EAAD 2025 was ‘From Resistance to Resilience: healthcare workers leading the change’, and it focused on the significant challenges faced by healthcare workers when addressing severe infections, particularly those caused by antimicrobial resistant organisms.
