Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 12, Issue 22, 31 May 2007

A case of extensively drug-resistant tuberculosis (XDR-TB) in a United States citizen travelling in Europe was notified to the EU Early Warning and Response System (EWRS) on 25 May by the Italian authorities.

Several cases of influenza-like-illness (ILI) and/or conjunctivitis in humans have been linked to an outbreak of avian influenza in poultry at a smallholding near Corwen in northern Wales in the United Kingdom (UK).

Influenza A/H7N2 virus, as seen in the poultry outbreak described above, is one of many Low Pathogenicity Avian Influenzas (LPAIs) [1]. These have a genotype associated with causing milder symptoms in birds than the rarer high pathogenicity viruses and are negative on in vivo test [2,3].

An outbreak of Verocytotoxin-producing Escherichia coli (VTEC) O26:H11 occurred in Denmark from February to April 2007. The outbreak was detected at Statens Serum Institut (Danish National Institute of Health, SSI) on 9 March by routine PFGE typing of VTEC isolates collected as part of the laboratory surveillance system.

In this article we describe the clinical presentation of a fatal case of rabies in a German tourist returning from Morocco. Rabies is an acute viral encephalomyelitis that is almost invariably fatal.

The shared use of a consistent terminology is crucial to ensure interoperability of information systems and comparability of data of different sources, however, it is only rarely implemented in practice. Introducing terminology services at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) is an example of how to meet this challenge in the area of public health.