The number of reported human cases of illness caused by Campylobacter and Salmonella bacteria across Europe appears to have stabilised over the past five years, according to the latest report on zoonotic diseases by EFSA and ECDC.
This report of the EFSA and ECDC presents the results of zoonoses monitoring activities carried out in 2019 in 36 European countries (28 Member States (MS) and eight non-MS).
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.
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%.
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.