Eurosurveillance
-
Invasive group A streptococcal infections (iGAS) are a major clinical and public health challenge. iGAS is a notifiable disease in Ireland since 2004. The aim of this paper is to describe the epidemiology of iGAS in Ireland for the first time over the seven-year period from 2004 to 2010. The Irish national electronic infectious disease reporting system was used by laboratories to enter the source of iGAS isolates, and by departments of public health to enter clinical and epidemiological details. ⋯ The notification rate of iGAS in Ireland was lower than that reported in the United Kingdom, Nordic countries and North America but higher than southern and eastern European countries. The reasons for lower notification rates in Ireland compared with other countries may be due to a real difference in incidence, possibly due to prescribing practices, or due to artefacts resulting from the specific Irish case definition and/or low reporting in the early stages of a new surveillance system. iGAS disease remains an uncommon but potentially severe disease in Ireland. Ongoing surveillance is required in order to undertake appropriate control measures and gain a greater understanding of this disease.
-
Since January 2011 Romania has been experiencing a measles outbreak with 2,072 cases notified in 29 of the 42 Romanian districts. Most cases occurred in the north-western part of the country among unvaccinated children with the highest number of cases (893 cases) registered in children aged one to four years. This report underlines once more the need for additional measures targeting susceptible populations to achieve high vaccination coverage with two doses of measles-mumps-rubella vaccine.
-
Comparative Study
The impact of the 2009 influenza A(H1N1) pandemic on attitudes of healthcare workers toward seasonal influenza vaccination 2010/11.
The emergence of the influenza A(H1N1)2009 virus provided a major challenge to health services around the world. However, vaccination rates for the public and for healthcare workers (HCWs) have remained low. We performed a study to review the reasons put forward by HCWs to refuse immunisation with the pandemic vaccine in 2009/10 and characterise attitudes in the influenza season 2010/11 due to the emergence of influenza A(H1N1)2009. ⋯ Of the HCWs and students surveyed, 270 of 1,645 (16.4%) stated that the pandemic had influenced their attitude towards vaccination in general. Many German HCWs remained unconvinced of the safety of the pandemic (adjuvanted) influenza vaccine. For this reason, effective risk communication should focus on educating the public and HCWs about influenza vaccine safety and the benefits of vaccination.