Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 7, Issue 19, 08 May 2003

New findings arising from the outbreaks of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) in Hong Kong and Canada have been reported in two early online publications (1, 2). The authors of the Hong Kong paper used demographic, epidemiological, and clinical data from 1425 SARS cases reported up to 28 April to describe the epidemic in Hong Kong and to estimate key epidemiological parameters. The paper from Canada reviews the clinical features and outcomes of 144 SARS patients admitted to hospital between 7 March and 10 April in Toronto.

During a videoconference between Geneva and Hong Kong on 6 May, the World Health Organization (WHO) thanked the Hong Kong Secretary for Health, Welfare and Food for Hong Kong's continuing efforts at containing severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). WHO thanked the Health Secretary in particular for allowing a Malaysian ship to enter the port recently with suspected SARS cases on board.

A catch-up immunisation campaign against Haemophilus influenzae type b (Hib) is scheduled to commence in England and Wales in the second week of May (http://www.doh.gov.uk/cmo/letters/cmo0301.htm). This decision has been made in response to a recent increase in invasive infections due to this organism, with 145 cases of confirmed Hib disease reported in children under five in England and Wales last year. While this is still far lower than the 773 cases observed in this age group in 1990, before routine immunisation was implemented, it is a dramatic rise from the nadir of 22 in 1998 (1). To the end of 2001, surveillance in several European Union (EU) countries indicated that this experience was unique to the United Kingdom (UK) (http://www.phls.org.uk/inter/eu_ibis/aims.htm). A more recent report of a rise in cases in the Netherlands in 2002 is cause for concern (2).

Anonymous reporting of positive HIV test results by laboratories performing the confirmation of the result is compulsory in Switzerland. Such laboratories reported 792 positive HIV test results performed in 2002 to the Swiss Federal Office of Public Health, representing an increase of 25% over the previous year, and confirming the reversal of a declining trend observed during most of the last decade (1).

The importance of communicable disease control and health security, and in particular the establishment of a European centre for disease prevention and control, were stressed this week in a high level meeting between European Commissioners and the World Health Organization (WHO).

The 2003 edition of the World Health Organization (WHO) publication International Travel and Health, has now been published. It is available online at www.who.int/ith, or can be ordered from http://bookorders.who.int.