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.
Since the last rapid risk assessment on this multi-country hepatitis A outbreak, 19 EU/EEA countries (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom-England & Wales) have reported 1 363 new outbreak-confirmed cases. 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.
Universal screening of pregnant women is feasible and has led to immunisation in nearly all identified cases in Denmark. As a consequence of the study the National Board of Health has made universal HBsAg screening of pregnant women permanent in the country.
ECDC Director Marc Sprenger at the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) stressed the importance of the EU’s continuous commitment in the fight against hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
The authors retrospectively analyzed hepatitis A virus (HAV) seroprevalence in travellers who had been born and lived at least 1 year in a developing country, wanted to travel to a hepatitis A endemic area, and consulted at the vaccination centre of the Institut Pasteur of Paris between September 1, 2008 and February 28, 2010. HAV seroprevalence was 82.4 % for a population of 646 immigrants for whom data were available
The first annual meeting of the European hepatitis B and C surveillance network takes place on 23-24 March 2011. Since 2009, ECDC has worked on preparing the enhanced surveillance of hepatitis B and C at EU/EEA level by establishing a network for hepatitis B and C surveillance and by carrying out a survey on prevention and surveillance activities in the Member States.