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Eurosurveillance
Since 1995, Eurosurveillance has provided the European public health community with an open-access platform to exchange relevant findings on communicable disease surveillance, prevention and control. A weekly, electronic, peer-reviewed publication, Eurosurveillance aims to provide timely facts and guidance for public health professionals and decision-makers in the field of infectious disease to facilitate the implementation of effective prevention and control measures. Impact factor: 6.4. More...
Latest Issue: Volume 26, Issue 23, 10 June 2021 Latest Issue RSS feed
- Rapid communication
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Case series of four secondary mucormycosis infections in COVID-19 patients, the Netherlands, December 2020 to May 2021
More LessWe describe four secondary fungal infections caused by Mucorales species in COVID-19 patients. Three COVID-19 associated mucormycosis (CAM) occurred in ICU, one outside ICU. All were men aged > 50 years, three died. Clinical presentations included pulmonary, rhino-orbital cerebral and disseminated infection. Infections occurred in patients with and without diabetes mellitus. CAM is an emerging disease and our observations underscore the need to be aware of invasive mucormycosis, including in COVID-19 patients without (poorly controlled) diabetes mellitus and outside ICU.
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The SARS-CoV-2 B.1.351 lineage (VOC β) is outgrowing the B.1.1.7 lineage (VOC α) in some French regions in April 2021
More LessTo assess SARS-CoV-2 variants spread, we analysed 36,590 variant-specific reverse-transcription-PCR tests performed on samples from 12 April–7 May 2021 in France. In this period, contrarily to January–March 2021, variants of concern (VOC) β (B.1.351 lineage) and/or γ (P.1 lineage) had a significant transmission advantage over VOC α (B.1.1.7 lineage) in Île-de-France (15.8%; 95% confidence interval (CI): 15.5–16.2) and Hauts-de-France (17.3%; 95% CI: 15.9–18.7) regions. This is consistent with VOC β’s immune evasion abilities and high proportions of prior-SARS-CoV-2-infected persons in these regions.
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- Research
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Mortality review as a tool to assess the contribution of healthcare-associated infections to death: results of a multicentre validity and reproducibility study, 11 European Union countries, 2017 to 2018
More LessIntroductionThe contribution of healthcare-associated infections (HAI) to mortality can be estimated using statistical methods, but mortality review (MR) is better suited for routine use in clinical settings. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control recently introduced MR into its HAI surveillance.
AimWe evaluate validity and reproducibility of three MR measures.
MethodsThe on-site investigator, usually an infection prevention and control doctor, and the clinician in charge of the patient independently reviewed records of deceased patients with bloodstream infection (BSI), pneumonia, Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) or surgical site infection (SSI), and assessed the contribution to death using 3CAT: definitely/possibly/no contribution to death; WHOCAT: sole cause/part of causal sequence but not sufficient on its own/contributory cause but unrelated to condition causing death/no contribution, based on the World Health Organization’s death certificate; QUANT: Likert scale: 0 (no contribution) to 10 (definitely cause of death). Inter-rater reliability was assessed with weighted kappa (wk) and intra-cluster correlation coefficient (ICC). Reviewers rated the fit of the measures.
ResultsFrom 2017 to 2018, 24 hospitals (11 countries) recorded 291 cases: 87 BSI, 113 pneumonia , 71 CDI and 20 SSI. The inter-rater reliability was: 3CAT wk 0.68 (95% confidence interval (CI): 0.61–0.75); WHOCAT wk 0.65 (95% CI: 0.58–0.73); QUANT ICC 0.76 (95% CI: 0.71–0.81). Inter-rater reliability ranged from 0.72 for pneumonia to 0.52 for CDI. All three measures fitted ‘reasonably’ or ‘well’ in > 88%.
ConclusionFeasibility, validity and reproducibility of these MR measures was acceptable for use in HAI surveillance.
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- Perspective
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Minimum dataset for monitoring national human immunodeficiency virus pre-exposure prophylaxis (HIV PrEP) programmes: a five-nation consensus, 2019
More LessHuman immunodeficiency virus (HIV) pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), the use of antiretroviral medication to prevent HIV acquisition, is a highly effective biomedical prevention tool. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends PrEP for people at substantial risk of HIV infection, as part of combination prevention, and highlights the need for robust evaluation of PrEP programmes. Based on suggested WHO core indicators, we created a concise set of HIV PrEP-related dataset variables, to harmonise the monitoring and evaluation of PrEP programmes across five closely related nations (England, Northern Ireland, Ireland, Scotland and Wales). The dataset is based on the PrEP cascade and is intended to represent the minimum variables needed for reporting and comparison of meaningful data at national and multinational level. The dataset can be modified for settings with different health and surveillance systems. It is intended for public health, academic, clinical and health planning, and public audiences. Here we describe the dataset and illustrate its use with data from the first year of the Scottish National PrEP programme.
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