Eurosurveillance - Volume 15, Issue 40, 07 October 2010

Dengue virus (DENV) is endemic in south-east Asia and Central to South America. In August 2010, a DENV infection was diagnosed in a German traveller returning from a trip to Croatia in south-east Europe. The patient presented with fever and other typical symptoms of DENV-infection. Virological investigation revealed the presence of DENV-specific IgM, a rise in DENV-specific IgG and the presence of DENV NS1 antigen in the patient's blood. .

We report an outbreak of measles that has been ongoing in the district of Neamt, Romania, since 22 August 2010. As of 21 September, 17 of 21 suspected cases have been laboratory-confirmed and there was one measles-related fatality.

Assessment of the severity of disease due to the 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) in Australian states and territories has been hampered by the absence of denominator data on population exposure. We compared antibody reactivity to the pandemic virus using haemagglutination inhibition assays performed on plasma specimens taken from healthy adult blood donors (older than 16 years) before and after the influenza pandemic that occurred during the southern hemisphere winter. Pre-influenza season samples (April - May 2009, n=496) were taken from donation collection centres in North Queensland (in Cairns and Townsville); post-outbreak specimens (October - November 2009, n=779) were from donors at seven centres in five states. Using a threshold antibody titre of 40 as a marker of recent infection, we observed an increase in the influenza-seropositive proportion of donors from 12% to 22%, not dissimilar to recent reports of influenza A(H1N1)-specific immunity in adults from the United Kingdom. No significant differences in seroprevalence were observed between Australian states, although the ability to detect minor variations was limited by the sample size. On the basis of these figures and national reporting data, we estimate that approximately 0.23% of all individuals in Australia exposed to the pandemic virus required hospitalisation and 0.01% died. The low seroprevalence reported here suggests that some degree of prior immunity to the virus, perhaps mediated by broadly reactive T-cell responses to conserved influenza viral antigens, limited transmission among adults and thus constrained the pandemic in Australia. .

Between 2003 and 2007, 21% (n=100/477) of accommodation sites linked to clusters of two or more cases of Legionnaires' disease that were investigated by the European Surveillance Scheme for Travel-Associated Legionnaires' Disease (EWGLINET) went on to be associated with at least one further case, despite reporting that satisfactory control measures had been implemented at the time the cluster was first detected. This paper examines these sites (termed reoffenders) in order to determine whether they share any characteristics that may have contributed to the reoffence. All investigations conducted at cluster sites between 2003 and 2007 were included in the analysis, giving a total of 615 investigations conducted at 477 sites. Every country that investigated more than three cluster sites had to deal with at least one reoffence, and one site reoffended five times. The cases involved in the cluster that stayed elsewhere during their incubation periods could be used to help assess the probability of exposure, and therefore the risk, posed by particular cluster sites. A more extensive investigation and control regime may be needed in some instances to better control the risk of Legionnaires' disease at an accommodation site. .