Eurosurveillance - Volume 19, Issue 18, 08 May 2014

On 14 April 2014, the first laboratory-confirmed case of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) infection was reported in Malaysia in a man in his mid-fifties, who developed pneumonia with respiratory distress, after returning from a pilgrimage to Saudi Arabia. The case succumbed to his illness three days after admission at a local hospital. The follow-up of 199 close contacts identified through contact tracing and vigilant surveillance did not result in detecting any other confirmed cases of MERS-CoV infection.

Factors that trigger human infection with animal influenza virus progressing into a pandemic are poorly understood. Within a project developing an evidence-based risk assessment framework for influenza viruses in animals, we conducted a review of the literature for evidence of human infection with animal influenza viruses by diagnostic methods used. The review covering Medline, Embase, SciSearch and CabAbstracts yielded 6,955 articles, of which we retained 89; for influenza A(H5N1) and A(H7N9), the official case counts of the World Health Organization were used. An additional 30 studies were included by scanning the reference lists. Here, we present the findings for confirmed infections with virological evidence. We found reports of 1,419 naturally infected human cases, of which 648 were associated with avian influenza virus (AIV) A(H5N1), 375 with other AIV subtypes, and 396 with swine influenza virus (SIV). Human cases naturally infected with AIV spanned haemagglutinin subtypes H5, H6, H7, H9 and H10. SIV cases were associated with endemic SIV of H1 and H3 subtype descending from North American and Eurasian SIV lineages and various reassortants thereof. Direct exposure to birds or swine was the most likely source of infection for the cases with available information on exposure.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup took place in South Africa between 11 June and 11 July 2010. The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), in collaboration with the hosting authorities, carried out enhanced epidemic intelligence activities from 7 June to 16 July 2010 for timely detection and monitoring of signals of public health events with a potential to pose a risk to participants and visitors. We adapted ECDC's routine epidemic intelligence process to targeted event-based surveillance of official and unofficial online information sources. A set of three specifically adapted alerts in the web-based screening system MedISys were set up: potential public health events in South Africa, those occurring in the participating countries and those in the rest of the world. Results were shared with national and international public health partners through daily bulletins. According to pre-established ECDC criteria for the World Cup, 21 events of potential public health relevance were identified at local and international level. Although none of the events detected were evaluated as posing a serious risk for the World Cup, we consider that the investment in targeted event-based surveillance activities during the tournament was relevant as it facilitated real-time detection and assessment of potential threats. An additional benefit was early communication of relevant information to public health partners. .

Non-travel-related hepatitis A is rare in Canada. We describe a hepatitis A outbreak investigation in British Columbia in February to May 2012 in which exposure history was collected from nine confirmed non-travel-related cases. Suspected foods were tested for hepatitis A virus (HAV): a frozen fruit blend was identified as a common exposure for six of the nine cases using supermarket loyalty cards. Consumption of the product was confirmed in each case. Genetic analysis confirmed HAV genotype 1B in the six exposed cases. Of the three non-exposed cases, the virus could not be genotyped for two of them; the virus from the other case was found to be genotype 1A and this case was therefore not considered part of the outbreak. HAV was detected by PCR from pomegranate seeds, a component of the identified frozen fruit blend. Historically low levels of HAV infection in British Columbia triggered early recognition of the outbreak. Loyalty card histories facilitated product identification and a trace-back investigation implicated imported pomegranate seeds.