Eurosurveillance - Volume 13, Issue 18, 30 April 2008

In March 2008, a six-month-old stray female puppy was found injured in the Republic of the Gambia. A Belgian resident holidaying in the country took the dog to a local veterinary clinic to be treated. It was operated upon, and on 15 March was given a first rabies vaccine dose and micro-chipped. The dog was adopted by the Belgian woman, and a certificate of good health was provided for it by a Gambian veterinarian on 5 April. The dog and its new owner took a flight to Belgium on 6 April and arrived in Brussels, via Dakar, on the morning of 7 April. No serological control had been carried out before leaving hte Republic of the Gambia, and the owner had not applied for legal authorisation to import the dog into Belgium. The dog travelled in the cabin inside a travel box carried on the owner's lap, with just the head exposed. The dog had been sedated before departure and reportedly slept throughout the plane journey. According to the owner, there were two possible human contacts during the flight. .

Following a national mumps outbreak that began in November 2004 and continued into 2005, the number of mumps notifications in Ireland waned in the latter half of 2006 and during 2007 (Figure 1). However, mumps notifications have started to increase again in 2008 (Figure 1). The number of mumps notifications annually between 1988 and 2008 and the number of confirmed mumps notifications by year from 2004 to 2008 are shown in Figure 2. In total, there were 420 mumps notifications in 2004, 1,079 in 2005, 427 in 2006, 150 in 2007 and to date there are 153 notifications in 2008 (Figure 2). In contrast, there were 40 mumps notifications in 2003 (Figure 2).

A woman in her fifties was treated for falciparum malaria at the University Medical Centre in Hamburg, Germany in April 2008.