Since the publication of the joint ECDC-EFSA rapid outbreak assessment on a multi-country outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes serogroup IVb, multi-locus sequence type 6 (ST 6) on 22 March 2018, three EU Member States have reported nine new confirmed outbreak cases.

On 7 March 2018, Germany reported four human cases of acute encephalitis or encephalopathy caused by infection with Borna disease virus 1 (BoDV-1). This is the first time that a possible BoDV-1 transmission through organ transplantation has been reported.

Since the last epidemiological update on this multi-country hepatitis A outbreak published on 22 December 2017, 22 EU/EEA countries (Austria, Belgium, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom-England) have reported 320 new outbreak-confirmed cases. The outbreak-confirmed cases are EU/EEA residents with laboratory-confirmed hepatitis A virus (HAV) genotype IA and a sequence with ≥99.3% homology to one of the three HAV genotype IA outbreak strains (VRD_521_2016; RIVM-HAV16-090; and V16-25801) based on overlapping fragments at the VP1-2a region.

Frozen corn is the likely source of an outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes which has affected five EU Member States (Austria, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) since 2015. This is the conclusion of a rapid outbreak assessment published today by EFSA and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC). As of 8 March 2018, 32 cases including six deaths had been reported.

The latest ECDC rapid risk assessment on the risk of measles transmission in the EU/EEA highlights that vaccination coverage and occurrence of cases vary within countries and population groups. It points to the need for systems to identify and vaccinate young adults, who are increasingly affected and therefore increase measles circulation, but who may not be aware of their vaccination status. Finally, ECDC signals the frequency of cases amongst healthcare workers as a matter of concern and suggests that Member States may consider specific interventions to ensure this group is vaccinated.

Since the publication of the rapid risk assessment on a multi-country outbreak of Listeria monocytogenes serogroup IVb, multi-locus sequence type 6 (MLST 6) on 6 December 2017, four EU Member States reported seven new confirmed outbreak cases. Two of these cases were fatal.

Recent findings on new settlements of Aedes aegypti, the main vector species of dengue, chikungunya, Zika and yellow fever, call for strengthening surveillance and vector control activities preparedness for mosquito-borne diseases.

ECDC issues new risk assessment in light of the yellow fever resurgence in Brazil (in particular in São Paulo) and the expected increasing flow of travellers during the upcoming Carnival.

The widespread recall of several infant formula products made by a French processing company is likely to significantly reduce the risk of infants being infected by Salmonella Agona, according to the risk assessment published today by ECDC and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). However, as long as there are potentially contaminated products circulating, new cases may still be detected.

On 6 December 2017, France reported an outbreak of Salmonella Agona in infants <1 years of age linked to consumption of infant milk formula based on an epidemiological investigation. Different brands of infant formulas from the same producer in France and distributed to different countries inside and outside the EU were implicated as the vehicle of infection in this outbreak.