Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 12, Issue 16, 19 April 2007

At the end of July 2006, an unusually high number of patients with acute diarrhoea were reported by the accident and emergency departments in Taranto, Apulia. Subsequently, a field investigation was conducted jointly by the Apulia Regional Epidemiological Observatory and the Regional Reference Laboratory in Bari, and the Epidemiological Department of Taranto Local Health Unit.

As reported previously, lymphogranuloma venereum (LGV) has emerged as a significant public health problem in the Netherlands since an outbreak among mainly HIV-positive men having sex with men (MSM) in Rotterdam in 2004 [1,2]. As of March 2007, 232 confirmed cases of LGV had been reported in the Netherlands.

Cowpox has been enzootic in cattle for a long time. Over the past years, however, no cowpox virus infections of cattle were diagnosed in Germany. Instead, cowpox viruses are increasingly found in cats, which can develop lesions and secrete large amounts of virus.

The United States’ Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has announced that it has approved a vaccine for humans against the H5N1 influenza virus [1]. This is the first such vaccine to be approved in the US.

Changes in lifestyle, travel, and migration, as well as other factors such as climate change and terrorism have increased the vulnerability of the human population to imported, rare, and emerging infections. Numerous virus outbreaks have occurred in recent years, such as Ebola haemorrhagic fever in Democratic Republic of Congo (1995, 2001-2003), Uganda (2000) and Gabon (2001-2003), West Nile fever in the United States since 1999, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in China in 2002, Chikungunya in the Indian Ocean and India since 2004/2005, and, most recently, avian influenza.