Childhood immunisation against S. pneumoniae is the most effective public health measure for preventing IPD both among vaccine recipients (direct effect), and among unimmunised populations (indirect ‘herd’ effect).
ECDC promotes the performance of external quality assessment (EQA) schemes, in which laboratories are sent simulated clinical specimens or bacterial isolates for testing by routine or reference laboratory methods. EQA schemes, or laboratory proficiency testing, provide information about the accuracy of different characterisation and typing methods as well as antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) and the sensitivity of the methods in place to detect a certain pathogen or novel resistance patterns.
In 2014, 40 727 cases of pertussis were reported to TESSy by 29 EU/EEA countries. The notification rate was 9.1 cases per 100 000 population, higher than in 2013, but lower than in the epidemic year of 2012.
In 2014, 84 cases, including 48 confirmed cases, were reported by 26 EU/EEA countries. Austria, Belgium, Finland, Germany and Liechtenstein did not report data.