Eurosurveillance - Volume 4, Issue 2, 01 February 1999

This issue of Eurosurveillance includes a paper whose publication in the bulletin requires some explanation. Asthma is not an infectious disease as such, but acute viral infections are known to precipitate asthma attacks and people with asthma are more li

Neisseria meningitidis group C regularly causes epidemics in schools, universities, and army units, and in the past decade community outbreaks have been reported. Since a safe and effective polysaccharide vaccine is available the issue arises repeatedly

The setting up of the Swiss Sentinel Surveillance Network (SSSN) in 1986 has provided an excellent opportunity to study the distribution and determinants of asthma. The system provides morbidity data, which are representative of family practices in primar

Several people developed severe symptoms of gastroenteritis after attending a first holy communion banquet in Benevento, a town of 60 000 inhabitants in southern Italy. About 60 people had attended the banquet, held on 14 June 1998, between 1400 and 1800