Eurosurveillance - Volume 13, Issue 40, 02 October 2008

On 10 September 2008, ProMED issued a request for information concerning 14 cases of kidney stones in infants hospitalised in Gansu province, China, in the previous two months [1]. On 21 September, Chinese authorities reported 39,965 cases of kidney stones in infants, including three deaths related to the consumption of melamine-contaminated powdered infant formula. On that day, 12,892 of them were hospitalised, 104 with severe illness. Most of these cases (82%) affected children under two years of age.

Since November 2007, an increase in the number of reported hepatitis A cases has been observed in Latvia. The aim of this report is to provide an update on the descriptive epidemiology of hepatitis A in Latvia and suggest some possible explanations of the recent increase in incidence.

The public health protection authorities in the Czech Republic report a rise in cases of viral hepatitis A (HAV) since the end of May 2008. In total, as many as 602 HAV cases have been reported in 2008 until the end of calendar week 39 (28 September).

The prevalence of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus nasal carriage among 959 healthy employees of the Hellenic Air Force was investigated from November 2004 to October 2005. Nine participants were found to be colonised by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) (SCCmec type IV). Eight of the MRSA isolates were PVL-negative and belonged to ST30 by MLST, while the remaining one isolate was PVL-positive and classified as ST-80

In order to allocate rationally resources for research and surveillance of infectious diseases at the level of the German public health institute (RKI), we prioritised pathogens by public health criteria. After screening the relevant literature we developed a standardised methodology including a three-tiered scoring system for selected pathogens. The pathogens were rated in four categories containing a total of 12 criteria: burden of disease including incidence, severity, mortality; epidemiologic dynamic including outbreak potential, trend, emerging potential; information need including evidence on risk factors/groups, validity of epidemiologic information, evidence for pathogenesis; international duties and public attention; health gain opportunity including preventability, treatability. For each criterion a numerical score of +1, 0 or -1 was given and each criterion received a weight by which the numerical score of each criterion was to be multiplied. The total weighted scores ranged from +22.7 (influenza) to - 64.4 (cholera) with the median being -22.9 (rubella). Relevant changes were observed between weighted and unweighted scores. The chosen approach proved to be feasible and the result plausible. However, in order to further improve the methodology we invite experts to give feedback on the methodology via a structured web-based questionnaire at www.rki.de/EN > Prevention of infection > Infectious Disease Surveillance > Pathogen prioritization. Results of this survey will be included in a modification of the methodology.