Eurosurveillance - Volume 20, Issue 42, 22 October 2015

We report a case of pulmonary cystic echinococcosis in a child from eastern Finland with no history of travelling abroad. The cyst was surgically removed and the organism molecularly identified as Echinococcus canadensis genotype G10. This parasite is maintained in eastern Finland in a sylvatic life cycle involving wolves and moose; in the present case, the infection was presumably transmitted by hunting dogs.

We report 15 imported louse-borne relapsing fever (LBRF) cases in refugees in Bavaria, Germany. One patient died. Epidemiological findings confirmed that all were young males from the Horn of Africa (12 from Somalia), who had similar migration routes converging in Sudan continuing through Libya and Italy. The majority likely acquired their infection during migration. Healthcare workers should be aware of LBRF in refugees passing through north Africa to ensure correct treatment and preventive measures.

Both rotavirus vaccines RotaTeq and Rotarix were efficacious against severe rotavirus gastroenteritis in clinical trials; yet real-world data on the effect of rotavirus vaccines on mild to moderate disease are limited. We used a large computerised database of Maccabi Health Services Health Maintenance Organisation (HMO), the second largest HMO in Israel covering 25% of the Israeli population, to compare the incidence of acute gastroenteritis (AGE) clinic visits in community settings (n = 302,445) before (2005–10) and after (2011–13) the introduction of universal rotavirus immunisation in Israel. We retrieved laboratory results of rotavirus antigen tests (n = 18,133) and using a weighted analysis, we estimated the impact of rotavirus immunisation on the disease burden of rotavirus AGE clinic visits. Following the introduction of universal rotavirus immunisation, the typical winter peaks of rotavirus AGE were substantially lower and significant reductions of 14.8% (95% confidence interval (CI): 13.5–16.1) in all-cause AGE clinic visits and of 59.7% (95% CI: 59.8–62.6) in rotavirus AGE clinic visits were observed. The decrease was observed in all age groups, but it was greater in children aged 0 to 23 months than those aged 24 to 59 months. Continued rotavirus laboratory surveillance is warranted to monitor the sustainability of these changes.