Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 6, Issue 7, 14 February 2002

A 59 year old woman was admitted to hospital with a three day history of a sore throat and increasing dysphagia. During treatment with oral penicillin for one day, pain and dysphagia progressed and the patient was admitted. On examination, she was afebrile, her soft palate and uvula were swollen, and a membraneous exudate was seen on the soft palate and nasopharynx.

Chickenpox is now one of the last of the infectious diseases of childhood that remain mostly uncontrolled. An effective vaccine has been available for many years but has not been used for routine immunisation in many countries. This is because the effect of giving the vaccine in early life on the subsequent development of herpes zoster is not known; high immunisation rates are important to ensure that the age distribution does not shift towards older age groups in whom the disease is more serious; and the disease is generally considered innocuous, especially in childhood when about 95% of infections occur.

Further evidence confirming the absence of a causal link between vaccine for measles, mumps, and rubella (MMR), and autism was published in a study reported in last week’s BMJ online (1). The investigators identified 278 children with childhood autism and 195 with atypical autism born between 1979 and 1998 from computerised health registers of children with disabilities in the community and from special school and child psychiatry records, using the same methods and classifications.

A report in Eurosurveillance Weekly in September 2001 discussed the concurrent increases in the incidence of echovirus 30 in Germany and the United Kingdom in 2001 (1). Outbreaks of echovirus 13 infection had also occurred in both England and Wales, and Germany, in 2000. Other European countries informed the Eurosurveillance team that they had experienced similar outbreaks, and it was decided to conduct a small study through Eurosurveillance of echovirus incidence in European and other countries.