For 2019, EU/EEA countries reported five human Lyssavirus infections. Four human cases of travel-related rabies were reported by Italy, Latvia, Spain and Norway with exposure in Tanzania, India, Morocco and the Philippines, respectively. One locally-acquired fatal case of European bat lyssavirus (EBLV-1) infection was reported by France.
The ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) is a weekly bulletin for epidemiologists and health professionals on active public health threats. This issue covers the period 3-9 January 2021 and includes updates on COVID-19, yellow fever, and influenza.
Rabies is a deadly disease and endemic in over 100 countries. It causes around 59,000 human deaths annually, the vast majority in Asia and Africa. There are safe and effective human vaccines for pre- and post-exposure prophylaxis. With a prompt and proper post-exposure prophylaxis (PEP), exposed people have a survival rate close to 100%.
For 2018, EU/EEA countries reported 13 travel-related cases of yellow fever. The cases were reported by France (7), Germany (2), Czechia (1), the Netherlands (1), Romania (1) and the United Kingdom(1). The case reported by the Netherlands acquired the infection in Senegal or Gambia. All other cases acquired the infection in Brazil. This was the highest number of yellow fever cases ever reported in the EU/EEA in one year. In the previous four years, only one case was reported: the Netherlands reported an imported case with a travel history to Suriname.
This issue of the ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report (CDTR) covers the period 8-14 December 2019 and includes updates on Ebola virus disease, poliomyelitis, West Nile virus, measles, influenza A(H9N2), influenza, rabies and Plasmodium vivax malaria cases.
Nearly one in three foodborne outbreaks in the EU in 2018 were caused by Salmonella. This is one of the main findings of the annual report on trends and sources of zoonoses published today by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC).