Weekly releases (1997–2007) - Volume 8, Issue 48, 25 November 2004

On November 15, three isolates of Salmonella Thompson from patients who had not been abroad were detected by the reference laboratory at the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. Infections caused by Salmonella Thompson are very rare in Norway

The number of people living with HIV globally continues to increase, with an estimated 39.4 million adults and children infected as of the end of 2004, according to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS and the World Health Organization

So far in 2004, 3696 cases of mumps have been confirmed in England and Wales (weeks 1-39), compared with a total of 3884 cases between 1999 and 2003.

On 19 November 2004, a case of leptospirosis (leptospira IgM positive) in an 18 year old man was notified to the Department of Public Health, Eastern Regional Health Authority by the microbiology department of a Dublin teaching hospital

Recently published results of a randomised, double-blind, multi-centre, placebo-controlled trial involving 1113 women from North America and Brazil indicate that a vaccine against the two most common human papillomavirus types causing cervical cancer, is highly effective