Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 8, Issue 30, 22 July 2004

On 6 June 2004, a case of cholera was reported to the Brussels health inspection by a physician at the Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Saint-Pierre in Brussels. A 43 year old woman living in India left New Delhi on 2 June 2004 for a tour of Europe, together with nine family members.

Two confirmed cholera cases (Vibrio cholerae 01, subserotype Inaba, biotype El Tor) were reported to the Austrian ministry of health by the Vienna Regional Health Board and the national cholera reference laboratory in Vienna on 2 June 2004

At the end of April 2004, the European Medicines Agency (EMEA, http://www.emea.eu.int) issued a marketing authorisation (comparable to a product licence) applicable to all European Union countries for the oral cholera vaccine Dukoral, produced by Chiron Vaccines Evans.

In the course of 2003, four men were diagnosed with lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) at the Hamburg Institut für interdiziplinäre Infektiologie und Immunologie. All were men who have sex with men (MSM).

Many acute respiratory illnesses are viral in aetiology, and the infections are broadly grouped together as influenza-like illness (ILI) because of the similarity in presenting symptoms.