Eurosurveillance - Volume 13, Issue 13, 27 March 2008

Between the end of January and 12 March 2008, 16 cases of measles were reported to the local health authority in Reims in eastern France. The outbreak has to date affected nine adults and seven children, aged from seven months to 28 years. Among these cases, 13 were biologically confirmed.

The Republic of Moldova is experiencing a nationwide mumps outbreak, with a total of 19,550 notified cases as of 23 March 2008. The outbreak started in October 2007, with 105 cases notified in that month compared to an average number of 24 cases per month notified between January and September 2007. Between 1 October and 31 December 2007, 1,524 cases were notified.

The first cases of community-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (CA-MRSA) were reported in 1996 in Minnesota, United States (US) and were deep-seated skin and soft tissue infections and a few cases of necrotising pneumonia, mainly in children and among the Native American population [1]. A few years later, a large outbreak of CA-MRSA infections was reported in the men who have sex with men (MSM) community in California, predominantly among human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive patients; data on sexual transmission was not available [2]. A recent report on the spread of CA-MRSA, mainly due to the widely disseminated strain ""USA300"", in numerous MSM in San Francisco and in one patient in Boston suggested sexual transmission [3], but initiated critical reviews concerning the transmission route and the corresponding public health message [4,5].

As of the end of 2007, 8,014 people have been reported as human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive in Sweden. About 4,500 of them were still alive and living in Sweden at the end of 2007. Many deaths occurred before effective antiretroviral treatment became available in 1996, and a substantial number of those who tested positive were only temporarily in Sweden. From the late 1980s until 2002, around 300 new cases were reported annually. In recent years, there has been a gradual increase, and in 2007, a total of 541 cases were reported, which is the highest figure since the mid-1980ies, when it first became possible to diagnose HIV infections (Figure 1).

The 2006 Community Summary Report from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) was published recently with the latest trends and figures on the occurrence of zoonotic infections and agents, antimicrobial resistance and foodborne outbreaks in the then 25 European Union (EU) Member States and five non-EU countries. This article seeks to expand further upon reports of human listeriosis (Listeria monocytogenes infections) and changes in the epidemiology of this disease, in order to inform of important developments as they relate to an opportunity for the establishment of a formalised listeriosis surveillance network in Europe.

A selection of titles from current issues of the national epidemiological bulletins.