Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 6, Issue 17, 26 April 2002

Greek authorities have been investigating a seeming outbreak of acute respiratory infection followed by myocarditis and/or pericarditis. Three deaths in young and middle aged adults took place in April (the first on 5 April, two in Crete and one in Northern Greece). Following the second death, Greek authorities initiated intense surveillance nationwide with a case definition of myocarditis and/or pericarditis (diagnosed with a combination of clinical, laboratory investigations) preceded within ten days by upper respiratory tract infection.

David Byrne, Europe’s Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection, addressed the issue of communicable diseases in a changing environment in a speech to the European regional conference of the Red Cross and Red Crescent in Berlin on 15 April 2002 (1). His key messages were as follows.

In the 10 days preceding Easter (19-28 March), four children with haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) and a sibling with diarrhoea were treated at the university hospital of Münster in the German state of North Rhine Westphalia (1). Sorbitol-fermenting Escherichia coli O157:H- was found in faeces of all the cases by the Institute for Hygiene at the university.

Thirty-eight cases of malaria were diagnosed in Finland in 2001. Plasmodium falciparum was isolated in 16 cases, P. vivax in 16 cases, and P. ovale in six cases. Twenty-two patients (58%) including all patients with P. falciparum malaria were infected in Africa. Eleven patients were infected in West Africa, six in East Africa and five in central or southern Africa. Eight of the patients with P. vivax malaria were infected in India and Pakistan.