Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 5, Issue 47, 22 November 2001

An imported case of yellow fever was recently confirmed in Belgium. The patient was a white female tourist born in 1954 and living in Belgium who had travelled with her son to The Gambia. She was not immunised against yellow fever. She arrived in Banjul on 1 November 2001 on a direct flight from Belgium. She stayed at a hotel in Bakou (days 1-7) and, with a local guide, visited the localities of Serekunda, Biltan-Bolong and the Brikama mangrove (day 2).

Eurosurveillance Weekly has previously reported a community outbreak of legionnaires' disease in Norway, in the city of Stavanger, on the west coast of the country (1). Twenty-six confirmed cases and two probable cases were identified in this first reported outbreak of legionellosis in Norway. The first patient presented with symptoms on 18 July, the last on 7 September. All confirmed cases had urinary antigen detected. In addition, Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 was cultured from nine patients.

A fourth letter containing anthrax spores was discovered on 16 November in the United States (US) by investigators from the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the US Postal Service (1). They had been sifting through unopened US government mail that was quarantined after a previous anthrax laced letter was discovered on 15 October in the office of Senator Tom Daschle. In order to preserve forensic evidence, the letter has not yet been opened, but preliminary field tests have been positive for B. anthracis, and the envelope is believed to contain billions of spores.

In 2000, 548 cases of tuberculosis (TB) caused by the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex were notified in Denmark, 199 (36%) in Danes and 349 (64%) in immigrants (1). This constitutes a slight increase on the 536 cases (31% in Danes and 69% in immigrants) in 1999. The overall incidence in 2000 was 10.3 per 100 000, 10.1/100 000 in 1999 and 10.0/100 000 in 1998. The incidence was 4.0/100 000 in Danes and 92.3/100 000 in immigrants in 2000 compared with 3.3/100 000 in Danes and 102.6/100 000 in immigrants in 1999. The ratio of male to female cases among Danes was 2.1.

Ministers at the European Union’s Health Council meeting in Brussels on 15 November 2001 adopted unanimously a Recommendation on the prudent use of antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents in human medicine (see also IP/01/1596) (1). The Recommendation asks national governments to take measures to contain the spread of antimicrobial resistance by encouraging a more prudent use of antibiotics. Member states are asked to raise awareness and provide information to the general public, to use a precautionary approach (by prescription only), and to improve monitoring of consumption of these drugs.