Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 6, Issue 15, 11 April 2002

Since autumn 2001, several hospitals in Norway have reported an increased number of infections and colonisations with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Genetically indistinguishable strains of the bacteria have so far been found in 78 patients in nine hospitals across the country. Most patients already had severe underlying diseases that requiring treatment in intensive care units.

In Spain, the Red Nacional de Vigilancia Epidemiológica (National Epidemiological Surveillance Network) classifies both respiratory and meningeal tuberculosis as statutorily notifiable diseases (SND), to be reported on an individual basis in accordance with specific reporting protocols and case definitions (1).

A decrease in imported cases of malaria has been registered at the Meldingssystem for smittsomme sykdommer (MSIS, Norway’s surveillance system for communicable diseases) since 1997 (table 1) (1). The 77 cases reported in 2001, equivalent to an incidence of 1.7 per 100 000 population, are a 28% reduction in number compared with the situation five years earlier (table 1).

The report Surveillance of Bacterial Meningitis in Europe for the epidemiological year 1999/2000 (July-June) has been published (1). This informal surveillance network, affiliated to the European Monitoring Group on Meningococci, has been in operation for over a decade. It was funded first by the National Meningitis Trust (now the Meningitis Trust) in England, and since then by Wyeth Lederle. The surveillance includes some countries outside Europe.

The rates of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and high risk sexual behaviour among men who have sex with men (MSM) have increased in Europe and the United States in the past few years, raising fears about a resurgence of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, according to a recent article in Current Opinion in Infectious Diseases (1).

The latest issue of EpiNorth, the infectious disease bulletin of northern Europe, is now available online in English and Russian at www.epinorth.org. Articles in this issue include the following.