Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 5, Issue 40, 04 October 2001

A study published online in the New England Journal of Medicine shows that prompt treatment with interferon in those acutely infected with hepatitis C virus prevented chronic infection in almost all (98%) patients (1). In this landmark study, 44 patients with acute hepatitis C were given 5 mU of interferon alfa-2b for four weeks daily, and then three times a week for another 20 weeks.

Coinciding with the publication of latest figures on variant Creutzfeld-Jakob disease (vCJD) in the United Kingdom (UK), the secretary of state for health announced details of the full compensation scheme that has been developed to make payments to each of those who have had a diagnosis of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) and their families (1,2). The compensation scheme for UK victims of vCJD has been developed by the government in consultation with representatives of families affected by vCJD.

Norway has in the past years experienced an increasing incidence of systemic disease caused by group B streptococci (GBS, Streptococcus agalactiae) as monitored by notifications of positive blood culture and spinal fluid specimens to Norway’s Meldingssystem for smittsomme sykdommer (MSIS) at Statens institutt for folkehelse (National Institute of Public Health, NIPH).

At the beginning of August 2001, after a five day field exercise, about 200 out of 450 soldiers in Germany’s armed forces became ill with acute gastroenteritis, peaking after about a week (1). The incubation period was assumed to be within a range of two to 10 days, and duration of the illness was between several days and two weeks.

The figure accompanying the article on echovirus 30 in issue 37 of Eurosurveillance Weekly showed all echoviruses reported in England and Wales in 1995-2001. The figure below shows the laboratory reports of echovirus 30 in England and Wales in periods of four weeks from 1996 to the present. It can be seen that echo 30 caused a smaller outbreak in the autumn of last year than this year, but that the number of reports did not reach baseline through the winter period.