Eurosurveillance - Volume 17, Issue 11, 15 March 2012

On 29 January 2012, the first case of measles in Elche, Spain, since 2001 was notified through the epidemiological surveillance system of the Valencian Community. As of 9 March, 109 cases have been notified. The outbreak started in a neighbourhood where the vaccination coverage of the population is inadequate. This report highlights the need to vaccinate the susceptible population and also points to the importance of developing coordinated measures between public health centres and hospital preventive services.

We report on the sequence type and beta-lactamase content of 174 carbapenem-resistant Acinetobacter baumannii isolates recovered from clinical specimens during 2010 and 2011 in a tertiary care hospital in central Greece. Carbapenem resistance was associated mainly with carriage of the bla_OXA-23 gene (in 72.4% of the isolates). To our knowledge, this is the first description of A. baumannii strains producing OXA-23 in Greece. During 2011, in our hospital they rapidly 'replaced' the previously predominant OXA-58-positive A. baumannii strains.

We used a sentinel general practitioner (GP) network to conduct surveillance for laboratory-confirmed influenza amongst patients presenting with influenza-like illness (ILI) in Victoria, Australia in 2011. The test-negative variation of the case control study design was used to estimate effectiveness for seasonal trivalent influenza vaccine. Cases and controls were ILI patients that tested positive and negative for influenza, respectively. Vaccination status was recorded by GPs and vaccine effectiveness (VE) was calculated as (1-adjusted odds ratio)x100%. There were 529 patients included in the study, of which 29% were influenza-positive. Twelve percent of study participants were reported as vaccinated, 6% of cases and 15% of controls. Adjusted VE against all influenza was 56%, but not statistically significant. There was generally little variation in VE estimates when stratified by virus type and subtype, which is consistent with good matches between circulating strains and the vaccine strains. The VE was higher among adults of working age than among children.

In spring 2008, the Hellenic Center for Disease Control and Prevention was notified about human brucellosis cases in Thassos, a Greek island that had been up to that point under a brucellosis eradication programme. Following the verification of the outbreak a 1:1 case-control study was conducted in the island. The study revealed that consumption of locally produced raw cheese was a risk factor for Brucella melitensis infection (odds ratio (OR): 15.1, 95% confidence interval (CI): 6.56-34.7). Brucella melitensis biotype 3 was identified in two clinical samples. As a result of the outbreak, the island is no longer officially considered as an area with farms free of brucellosis and is currently under a brucellosis control programme. The investigation of this outbreak demonstrated that control and eradication of brucellosis is not only a question of designing a strategy, but rather of ensuring its continuous, strict implementation. Furthermore, it revealed the lack of appropriate education of the public regarding the risks associated with raw, non heat-treated cheese consumption.