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Third Streptococcus pneumoniae disease outbreak involving serotype 4–ST801 in a shipyard, Finland, May to June 2025
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Maria Francesca Manca1,2
,
Jaakko Silvola2,3
,
Jakub Czarnecki2,4
,
Joana Sequeira Neto1,2
,
Mari Kanerva5
,
Heikki Kaukavuori6
,
Ana Cristina González Pérez2
,
Irmeli Lindström7
,
Heikki Frilander7
,
Mikhail Fomichev8
,
Harri Marttila5
,
Riitta Ratia5
,
Leif Lakoma2
,
Lotta Siira2
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View Affiliations Hide AffiliationsAffiliations: 1 ECDC Fellowship Programme, Field Epidemiology path (EPIET), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden 2 Finnish Institute for Health and Welfare (THL), Helsinki, Finland 3 Department of Clinical Microbiology, Turku University Hospital, The Wellbeing Services County of Southwest Finland (Varha), Turku, Finland 4 ECDC Fellowship Programme, Public Health Microbiology path (EUPHEM), European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden 5 Department of Infectious Diseases and Infection Control, Turku University Hospital, the Wellbeing Services County of Southwest Finland (Varha), Turku, Finland 6 Meyer Turku, Turku, Finland 7 Finnish Institute of Occupational Health (FIOH), Helsinki, Finland 8 Clinical Chemistry, Emergency and Automation Laboratory, The Wellbeing Services County of Southwest Finland (Varha), Turku, FinlandCorrespondence:Maria Francesca Mancafrancesca.manca thl.fi
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View Citation Hide Citation
Citation style for this article: Manca Maria Francesca, Silvola Jaakko, Czarnecki Jakub, Sequeira Neto Joana, Kanerva Mari, Kaukavuori Heikki, González Pérez Ana Cristina, Lindström Irmeli, Frilander Heikki, Fomichev Mikhail, Marttila Harri, Ratia Riitta, Lakoma Leif, Siira Lotta. Third Streptococcus pneumoniae disease outbreak involving serotype 4–ST801 in a shipyard, Finland, May to June 2025. Euro Surveill. 2025;30(41):pii=2500758. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2025.30.41.2500758 Received: 30 Sept 2025; Accepted: 15 Oct 2025
Abstract
Finland experienced three invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) outbreaks among shipyard workers at the same shipyard, in 2019, 2023 and 2025. During the latest outbreak (30 April–6 June 2025), 13 cases were reported, with six confirmed. All five isolates from blood culture-positive cases were serotype 4 – sequence type 801. These were nearly indistinguishable from three isolates from the 2019 outbreak, nine Finnish IPD surveillance isolates and isolates of a 2019 Norwegian shipyard outbreak. We found an association with welding.
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References
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