Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 7, Issue 4, 23 January 2003

The management board of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA, http://www.efsa.eu.int) met on 21 January, and among the issues discussed was selection of the experts who will provide scientific opinions to the EFSA (1). An expression of interest in membership of the EFSA Scientific Committee and panels was published the same day, with a closing date of 14 March (http://www.efsa.eu.int/recruitment_en.html). Those selected will be proposed to the board on 29 April, and the EFSA risk assessment programme is scheduled to begin soon after this date, making the EFSA scientifically operational.

Between 15 and 18 November 2002, two women (aged 47 and 55) and one 52 year old man in Frankfurt am Main, presented with trichinosis (1). Clinical features were fever, headache, myalgia, diarrhoea, periorbital oedema, general weakness, and eosinophilia. The diagnosis in the two of them was later confirmed by serology and the third case had a clear epidemiological link.

According to Richard Feacham Executive Director of the Global Fund (http://www.globalfundatm.org), the global HIV/AIDS pandemic is already worse than the Black Death, which raged in the mid 14th Century and is the largest catastrophe in recorded human history. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is not expected to peak until around 2050 or 2060. Feacham noted that India is currently on the same trajectory as Africa, but lagging 15 years behind. At present, there is nothing in place to alter the situation in India and the scale of the Indian epidemic will be 'staggering'.

Further details about the outbreaks of avian influenza in chicken farms in Hong Kong (1), including the latest figures, have been circulated on ProMED-mail (http://www.promedmail.org/).