Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 12, Issue 4, 25 January 2007

Deaths as a result of measles fell by 60 percent worldwide between 1999 and 2005, it was announced this week by the Measles Initiative

Increased influenza activity was reported in six countries in the second week of 2007: Greece, the Netherlands, United Kingdom (Northern Ireland), Scotland, Spain and Switzerland. Based on trends of previous years, influenza activity is expected to increase in many more European countries in the weeks ahead. The influenza activity reported so far has mainly been associated with influenza A viruses.

The pandemic preparedness plan for Germany published in January 2005 requires that all influenza patients have access to antiviral drugs in the event of an influenza pandemic.

A resurgence of outbreaks of avian influenza (A/H5N1) has been reported recently in poultry in Vietnam, South Korea, Japan and Thailand and Hungary, as well as cases of human infection in Indonesia and China, following a period of relatively low activity. This is not unexpected, as similar trends were observed at this time of the year in 2004, 2005 and 2006 [1,2,3].