Eurosurveillance - Volume 13, Issue 17, 24 April 2008

What is now known as tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) was first recognised as a distinct disease entity in 1931 in Europe by H. Schneider and described as 'meningitis serosa epidemica' of unknown etiology. A disease with similar clinical symptoms was reported in the Far East in 1934 and briefly thereafter - in 1937 - the etiologic agent was isolated in Russia and its transmission by ticks could also be demonstrated.

Between 20 January and 10 April 2008, six probable Crimean-Congo-haemorrhagic fever (CCHF) cases were reported in the municipality of Gotse Delchev, in Blagoevgrad district.

Haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is an acute zoonotic viral disease, caused by hantaviruses. Hantaviruses infect rodents worldwide. They are transmitted to humans by aerosol from rodent excreta. Several hantaviruses are known to infect humans with varying severity.

Campylobacteriosis is the most common reported bacterial gastrointestinal disease in Sweden. Food-borne outbreaks of campylobacteriosis in Sweden are rather rare except for, usually rather small, family outbreaks. Water-borne outbreaks of campylobacteriosis, however, have affected several thousand persons in the past [1

The European Network for Diagnostics of 'Imported' Viral Diseases (ENIVD) is finalising a project to improve the diagnostic and monitoring of encephalitis viruses in Europe. Part of this study was to analyse the present surveillance situation for tick-borne encephalitis (TBE), which is the most important flavivirus infection of the central nervous system in the European Union (EU) and Russia. A questionnaire was mailed to contact points in all Member States of the EU and three non-EU countries (Norway, Russia and Switzerland) to summarise their TBE surveillance and prevention activities. Information was requested on case definition, type of laboratory tests for TBE diagnostics, investigations regarding tick-transmitted diseases, mapping of endemic foci, vaccination programmes, and recommendations for travellers. The survey gives an overview of the existing epidemiological and laboratory sources of information and the number of TBE cases from 2004 until 2007, but also showed that, in particular, case definitions, diagnostic assays for confirmation, and methods/indicators for mapping risk areas differ widely across the participating countries. The data will help to develop recommendations for the standardisation and quality control of TBE surveillance and diagnostics. .

For the last three years, Austria has been considered a low-moderate incidence country (< 1/100,000/year) for measles [1] and the last significant measles outbreak occurred in 2003 involving 64 cases [2].

As of this week, Eurosurveillance has a new website. The radical change in the lay-out of the journal follows the merging of the two previous electronic editions in January 2008.