Annual theme 2025: vaccine-preventable diseases in humans — today's challenges and tomorrow's opportunities Submit your articles nowThree open-access e-learning resources for peer review to evaluate studies' aims, completeness and diversity. Enrol here
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: 9.9. More...
Latest Issue: Volume 30, Issue 5, 06 February 2025 Latest Issue RSS feed
- Outbreaks
-
-
-
A national outbreak of Serratia marcescens complex: investigation reveals genomic population structure but no source, Norway, June 2021 to February 2023
Arne Michael Taxt , Vegard Eldholm , Nicola Isabelle Kols , Maria Schei Haugan , Niclas Raffelsberger , Anne Mette Asfeldt , André Ingebretsen , Anita Blomfeldt , Kristin Stenhaug Kilhus , Paul Christoffer Lindemann , Horst Bentele , Jeanette Stålcrantz , Liz Ertzeid Ødeskaug , Thale Cathrine Berg and The Norwegian Serratia study groupWe report a national outbreak of Serratia marcescens complex type 755 (ct755) in Norway, with 74 cases identified between June 2021 and February 2023. Careful reviews of patient journals and interviews were performed, involving 33 hospitals throughout Norway. All available clinical isolates of S. marcescens collected between January 2021 and February 2023 (n = 455, including cases) from all involved hospitals were whole genome sequenced. Cases displayed a pattern of opportunistic infections, as usually observed with S. marcescens. No epidemiological links, common exposures or common risk factors were identified. The investigation pointed to an outbreak source present in the community. We suspect a nationally distributed product, possibly a food product, as the source. Phylogenetic analysis revealed a highly diverse bacterial population containing multiple distinct clusters. The outbreak cluster ct755 stands out as the largest and least diverse clone of a continuum, however a second cluster (ct281) also triggered a separate outbreak investigation. This report highlights challenges in the investigation of outbreaks caused by opportunistic pathogens and suggests that the presence of identical strains of S. marcescens in clinical samples is more common than previously recognised.
-
- Top
-
- Surveillance
-
-
-
Tick-borne encephalitis: from tick surveillance to the first confirmed human cases, the United Kingdom, 2015 to 2023
Helen Callaby , Kate R Beard , Dominic Wakerley , Mary Alexandra Lake , Jane Osborne , Kevin Brown , Nadina Wand , Jenny Warner , Maya Holding , Nicholas WS Davies , Malcolm Proudfoot , Amanda Semper , Tim Brooks , Christina Petridou , Catherine F Houlihan , Tommy Rampling , Clare E Warrell , N Claire Gordon and the TBE working groupBackgroundTick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is a flavivirus spread by ticks and can cause tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) in humans. Previously, TBE has been reported in returning travellers in the United Kingdom (UK), but in 2019 and 2020, two probable cases of TBE acquired in the UK were identified.
AimThe aim of this study was to investigate TBE cases in the UK between 2015 and 2023, describing the incidence, place and mode of acquisition and diagnostic process.
MethodsA retrospective review of possible, probable and confirmed cases of TBE diagnosed by the Rare and Imported Pathogens Laboratory (RIPL) between January 2015 and December 2023 was performed. For cases identified in 2022 and 2023, clinical data were collected for enhanced surveillance using structured case record forms. Laboratory diagnosis is reviewed and described.
ResultsWe identified 21 cases: three possible, seven probable and 11 confirmed cases. Of these, 12 were between January 2022 and December 2023: three possible, three probable and six confirmed cases. Two confirmed TBE cases had definite or highly probable acquisition in the UK, in June and August 2022, respectively. One of the possible cases had definite UK acquisition. Cases typically have a biphasic presentation, with encephalitis in the second phase.
ConclusionClinicians should be aware of the possibility of TBE when the cause for encephalitis is not identified, even in the absence of travel to previously identified endemic regions.
-
- Top
-
- Research
-
-
-
Effectiveness of catch-up and at-birth nirsevimab immunisation against RSV hospital admission in the first year of life: a population-based case–control study, Spain, 2023/24 season
Olivier Núñez , Carmen Olmedo , David Moreno-Perez , Nicola Lorusso , Sergio Fernández Martínez , Pedro Eliseo Pastor Villalba , Ángeles Gutierrez , Marcos Alonso Garcia , Pello Latasa , Rosa Sancho , Jacobo Mendioroz , Montserrat Martinez-Marcos , Enriqueta Muñoz Platón , María Victoria García Rivera , Olaia Pérez-Martinez , Rosa Álvarez-Gil , Eva Rivas Wagner , Nieves López Gonzalez-Coviella , Matilde Zornoza , M Isabel Barranco , M del Carmen Pacheco , Virginia Álvarez Río , Miguel Fiol Jaume , Roxana Morey Arance , Begoña Adiego Sancho , Manuel Mendez Diaz , Noa Batalla , Cristina Andreu , Jesús Castilla , Manuel García Cenoz , Ana Fernández Ibáñez , Marta Huerta Huerta , Ana Carmen Ibáñez Pérez , Belén Berradre Sáenz , Joaquín Lamas , Luisa Hermoso , Susana Casado Cobo , Manuel Galán Cuesta , Sara Montenegro , María Domínguez , Inmaculada Jarrín , Aurora Limia , Roberto Pastor-Barriuso , Susana Monge and the Nirsevimab Effectiveness Study CollaboratorsBackgroundRespiratory syncytial virus (RSV) causes substantial morbidity in infants < 1 year. In October 2023, Spain recommended the monoclonal antibody nirsevimab to all children born since 1 April 2023, at birth or as catch-up if born before October 2023.
AimWe estimated nirsevimab effectiveness in preventing RSV hospitalisations during the 2023/24 season.
MethodsWe conducted a nationwide population-based matched case–control study. Cases were children hospitalised for lower respiratory tract infection who were RSV PCR-positive. For each case, we selected four population density controls born in the same province and date (±2 days). We defined at-birth immunisation as receiving nirsevimab during the first 2 weeks of life, and catch-up immunisation within 30 days from campaign onset. Causal intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol (PP) effectiveness was estimated using inverse-probability-of-immunisation weighted conditional logistic regression.
ResultsWe included 406 cases and 1,623 controls in catch-up and 546 cases and 2,182 controls in at-birth immunisation studies. Effectiveness in preventing RSV hospitalisations for catch-up immunisation was 71% (95% confidence interval (CI): 65–76) by ITT and 80% (95% CI: 75–84) PP. Effectiveness for at-birth immunisation was 78% (95% CI: 73–82) by ITT and 83% (95% CI: 79–87) PP. Effectiveness was similar for ICU admission, need of mechanical ventilation, and RSV viral subgroups A and B. Children born pre-term or with birthweight < 2,500 g showed lower PP effectiveness of 60–70%.
ConclusionsPopulation-level nirsevimab immunoprophylaxis in children in their first RSV season was very effective in preventing RSV hospitalisations, ICU admission and mechanical ventilation, with reduced but still high effectiveness for pre-term and low-birthweight children.
-
-
Recent articles
-
-
One health investigation following a cluster of Crimean–Congo haemorrhagic fever, North Macedonia, July to November 2023
Dejan Jakimovski , Pavle Banović , Katerina Spasovska , Goran Rangelov , Marija Cvetanovska , Fadil Cana , Verica Simin , Ivana Bogdan , Dragana Mijatović , Aleksandar Cvetkovikj , Igor Djadjovski , Iva Christova , Eleftherios Meletis , Polychronis Kostoulas , Brigitta Zana , Zsófia Lanszki , Tamás Görföl , Zsófia Tauber and Gabor Kemenesi
-
-
-
- More Less