Communicable disease threats report, 2-8 December 2012, week 49

During week 48, from 25 November to 1 December, ECDC monitored several EU and Non EU threats posed by communicable diseases.

In particular, regarding the ongoing outbreak of Dengue fever in Madeira, 1 819 cases of dengue fever have been reported from Madeira as of 25 November 2012.  Forty three cases of dengue have been reported among European travellers returning from the island since the start of the outbreak. The presence of Aedes aegypti mosquitoes, the main vector for transmission of the virus, has been documented in Madeira since 2005.  The CDTR also includes information on the novel coronavirus which has been temporarily named hCoV-EMC.  On 30 November WHO confirmed that retrospectively two samples from a cluster of respiratory disease in Jordan in April 2012 have tested positive for the novel coronavirus. Both of these cases were fatal. In total nine cases have now been detected, out of which five were fatal. The ECDC communicable disease threats report is a weekly bulletin intended for epidemiologists and health professionals in the area of communicable disease prevention and control.