Invasive meningococcal disease with fatal outcome in a Swiss student visiting Berlin

I Zuschneid; A Witschi; L Quaback; W Hellenbrand; N Kleinkauf; D Koch; G Krause

doi:10.2807/ese.13.45.19031-en

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Invasive meningococcal disease with fatal outcome in a Swiss student visiting Berlin
I Zuschneid¹ , A Witschi² , L Quaback³ , W Hellenbrand⁴ , N Kleinkauf⁴ , D Koch⁵ , G Krause⁴
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Affiliations: ¹ Kreuzberg-Friedrichshain Health Department, Berlin, Germany ² Health Department of Basel-Stadt, Basel, Switzerland ³ Senate Department for Health, Environment and Consumer Protection, Berlin, Germany ⁴ Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Robert Koch-Institute, Berlin, Germany ⁵ Department of Communicable Diseases, Federal Department of Home Affairs FDHA, Federal Office of Public Health FOPH, Public Health Directorate, Bern, Switzerland

Correspondence:
W Hellenbrand
hellenbrandw rki.de
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Citation style for this article: Zuschneid I, Witschi A, Quaback L, Hellenbrand W, Kleinkauf N, Koch D, Krause G. Invasive meningococcal disease with fatal outcome in a Swiss student visiting Berlin. Euro Surveill. 2008;13(45):pii=19031. https://doi.org/10.2807/ese.13.45.19031-en Received: 03 Nov 2008

Abstract

Following the fatal invasive meningococcal disease in a Swiss student who had been visiting Berlin, several public health institutions on local, regional and national level cooperated to ensure that the appropriate measures such as contact tracing and post exposure prophylaxis were taken to prevent further cases. The incidence highlighted the importance of early disease notification and showed that if an infectious disease requiring public health action occurs in an international context, it is vital that relevant information is communicated to all levels of the public health systems of the countries involved.