Eurosurveillance - Volume 15, Issue 8, 25 February 2010

Three cases of Legionnaires' disease caused by Legionella longbeachae Sg 1 associated with potting compost have been reported in Scotland between 2008 and 2009. The exact method of transmission is still not fully understood as Legionnaires' disease is thought to be acquired by droplet inhalation. The linked cases associated with compost exposure call for an introduction of compost labelling, as is already in place in other countries where L. longbeachae outbreaks have been reported. .

In the last years, cases of chikungunya fever have been reported in international travellers returning from the Indian Ocean region. The cases have been linked to the re-emergence of chikungunya fever on Indian Ocean islands in 2006. We describe the first case of chikungunya fever in a French traveller returning from Malé, an island of the Maldives islands, confirming the permanence of virus circulation by the end of 2009.

Each spring, countries that participate in the European Surveillance Scheme for Travel Associated Legionnaires’ Disease (EWGLINET) are requested to submit their annual dataset of all cases of Legionnaires’ disease in residents of their country with onset of illness in the preceding year. These data have been collected annually since 1994 and are used to analyse epidemiological and microbiological trends within and between countries over time. This paper presents an overview of the data collected for 2007 and 2008. A total of 5,907 cases were reported by 33 countries in 2007 and 5,960 cases by 34 countries in 2008, a similar two-year total to that recorded in 2005 and 2006 [1]. The only countries with a major difference in case numbers between 2007 and 2008 were Russia, due to a large outbreak in 2007, and Italy where cases increased by 256 in 2008 mainly due to an increase in community-acquired infections. The 779 reported deaths give a two-year case fatality rate of 6.6%. Some 243 outbreaks or clusters were detected, 150 of which were linked to travel-associated infections. As in previous years, the overall main method of diagnosis was by urinary antigen detection and the proportion of cases diagnosed by culture remained low at 8.8%, although isolation rates by country ranged from under 1% to over 40%.

Chronic hepatitis C is a leading cause of end-stage liver disease and, with a worldwide prevalence of up to 3%, is a pandemic infectious disease. Austria, like most western European countries can be considered as a low prevalence country. This analysis aimed to assess the distribution of hepatitis C virus (HCV) genotypes in patients with chronic HCV infection in Upper Austria. Between September 1992 and December 2006, we identified 1,318 consecutive patients who tested positive for HCV RNA. Genotyping was routinely performed in 1,239 of the 1,318 patients, and in a subgroup of 617 patients data on the source of transmission were collected. Additionally we obtained data on liver histology and body mass index in a subsample of 273 of the 617 patients. Hepatitis C genotypes 1, 2, 3, 4, 6 and co-infections were found in 80.4%, 4.5%, 12.3%, 2.7%, 0.1% and 0.2% of the patients, respectively. There was a highly significant age difference in relation to gender at the time of diagnosis of chronic hepatitis C, with women being older than men (men: 45.0 years; women: 49.3 years; p<0.0001). The number of new cases of chronic hepatitis C decreased substantially over the last decade, but although risk factors for obtaining HCV are well established, we did not find a decrease in the age of first diagnosis. Besides consistent screening in defined risk groups it is important to raise awareness for risk factors for HCV acquisition and liver disease progression.