Eurosurveillance - Volume 17, Issue 19, 10 May 2012

From 16 January to 30 April 2012, a total of 119 cases of mumps were notified in Novi Sad, Serbia. Of these cases, 89 (75%), were among students. The average age of cases was 22 years-old (range 3-37). The outbreak is still ongoing in Novi Sad and is spreading to other parts of the Vojvodina province. As of 30 April, 209 cases have been notified in the province among those 119 from Novi Sad.

Antibody cross-reactivity to the influenza A(H3N2) variant virus recently reported in the United States, was investigated in Norwegian sera. Seroprevalence was 40% overall, and 71% in people born between 1977 and 1993. The most susceptible age groups were children and people aged around 50 years. The high immunity in young adults is likely to be due to strong priming infection with similar viruses in the 1990s. More research is needed to explain the poor immunity in 45-54 year-olds.

In October 2011, an Indian man resident in Italy was admitted to a hospital in Mantua, Italy with symptoms of acute encephalitis. Due to a recent history of bite by a suspected rabid dog in India, where he had received incomplete post-exposure treatment, rabies was suspected. The patient died after 22 days of intensive care treatment and rabies was confirmed post mortem. This report stresses the need of appropriate post-exposure prophylaxis in rabies-endemic countries.

Countries across Europe developed a range of database systems to register pandemic influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 cases. Anecdotal reports indicate that some systems were not as useful as expected. This was a cross-sectional, semi-structured survey of health professionals who collected and reported pandemic influenza A(H1N1)pdm09 cases in 23 countries within the 27 European Union (EU) Member States plus Norway. We describe here the experiences of using pandemic case register systems developed before and during the pandemic, whether the systems were used as intended and, what problems, if any, were encountered. We conducted the survey to identify improvements that could be made to future pandemic case registers at national and EU level. Despite many inter-country differences, 17 respondents felt that a standardised case register template incorporating a limited number of simple standard variables specified in advance and agreed between the World Health Organization and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control could be useful. Intra- and inter-country working groups could facilitate information exchange, clearer system objectives and improved interoperability between systems.