V O L . 1 0 I s s u e s 7- 9 Jul-Sep 2005 EUROPEAN COMMUNICABLE DISEASE JOURNAL Euroroundup • Severe Streptococcus pyogenes associated disease in Europe 2003 Heat Wave O utbreak report • Outbreak of mumps in Sweden Outbreak dispatches • Salmonellosis outbreaks due to imported foods • S HORT REPORTS More hantavirus infections than usual in some European countries FUNDED BY DG HEALTH AND CONSUMER PROTECTION OF THE COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES "Neither the European Commission nor any person acting on the behalf of the Commission is responsible for the use which might be made of the information in this journal. The opinions expressed by authors contributing to Eurosurveillance do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the European Commission, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control ( ECDC ), the Institut de veille sanitaire ( InVS ), the Health Protection Agency ( HPA ) or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated" Eurosurveillance V O L . 1 0 I s s u e s 7- 9 Jul-Sep 2005 Peer-reviewed European information on communicable disease surveillance and control Articles published in Eurosurveillance are indexed by Medline/Index Medicus C ONTENTS E DITORIALS 1 4 6 • Production of Eurosurveillance to be shared with the ECDC 146 Editorial team • Vulnerable population: lessons learnt from the summer 2003 heat waves in Europe 147 G Brücker Editorial offices • The 2003 European heat waves 148 France T Kosatsky Institut de Veille Sanitaire (InVS) 12, rue du Val d’Osne 94415 Saint-Maurice, France O RIGINAL ARTICLES 1 5 0 Tel + 33 (0) 1 41 79 68 33 Fax + 33 (0) 1 055 12 53 35 Topic: 2003 Heat Wave UK Health Protection Agency • Mortality in Portugal associated with the heat wave Centre for Infections of August 2003: Early estimation of effect, 61 Colindale Avenue London NW9 5EQ, UK using a rapid method 150 Tel + 44 (0) 20 8327 7417 PJ Nogueira, JM Falcão, MT Contreiras, E Paixão, Fax + 44 (0) 20 8200 7868 J Brandão, I Batista RESPONSIBLE EDITOR • Summary of the mortality impact assessment Gilles Brücker (InVS, France) of the 2003 heat wave in France 153 P Pirard, S Vandentorren, M Pascal, K Laaidi, MANAGING EDITORS A Le Tertre, S Cassadou, M Ledrans Hélène Therre (InVS, France) • Mortality in Spain during the heat waves [email protected] of summer 2003 156 Elizabeth Hoile (HPA CfI, UK) [email protected] F Simón, G Lopez-Abente, E Ballester, F Martínez • The impact of the summer 2003 heat waves PROJECT LEADERS on mortality in four Italian cities 161 Philippe Bossi (InVS, France) P Michelozzi, F de’Donato, L Bisanti, A Russo, E Cadum, Noel Gill (HPA CfI, UK)) M DeMaria, M D’Ovidio, G Costa, CA Perucci • The effect of the summer 2003 heat wave on mortality ASSISTANT EDITORS in the Netherlands 165 Anneli Goldschmidt (InVS, France) [email protected] J Garssen, C Harmsen, J de Beer Farida Mihoub (InVS, France) • The impact of the 2003 heat wave on daily mortality [email protected] in England and Wales and the use of rapid weekly Candice Pettifer (HPA CfI, UK) [email protected] mortality estimates 168 H Johnson, RS Kovats, G McGregor, J Stedman, M Gibbs, ASSOCIATE EDITORS H Walton Noel Gill (HPA CfI, UK) Stefania Salmaso (Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Surveillance report 172 Italy) Henriette de Valk (InVS, France) • Wound botulism in injectors of drugs: Norman Noah (London School of Hygiene upsurge in cases in England during 2004 172 and Tropical Medicine, UK) D Akbulut, J Dennis, M Gent, KA Grant, V Hope, Richard Pebody (HPA CfI, UK) C Ohai, J McLauchlin, V Mithani, O Mpamugo, F Ncube, Kate Soldan (HPA CfI, UK) L de Souza-Thomas Karl Ekdahl (ECDC, Sweden) Euroroundups 174 EDITORIAL ADVISORS • Pneumococcal vaccination policy in Europe 174 (see back cover) RG Pebody, T Leino, H Nohynek, W Hellenbrand, S Salmaso, P Ruutu www.eurosurveillance.org • The epidemiology of severe Streptococcus pyogenes associated disease in Europe 179 © Eurosurveillance, 2005 TL Lamagni, A Efstratiou, J Vuopio-Varkila, A Jasir, C Schalén, Strep-EURO Eurosurveillance V O L . 1 0 I s s u e s 7- 9 Jul-Sept 2005 Outbreak reports 18 4 • Increased hantavirus infections in Luxembourg, August 2005 204 • Real or media-mediated outbreak of coxsackie F Schneider, J Mossong infections in 2002 in Greece? 184 M Exindari, G Gioula, D Raptis, V Mavroidi, E Bouzia, • Increase in viral meningitis cases reported in France, V Kyriazopoulou summer 2005 205 D Antona, J-J Chomel • Outbreak of tinea corporis gladiatorum, a fungal skin infection due to Trichophyton tonsurans, in a French • Monitoring CA-MRSA infections in Slovenia 205 high level judo team 187 I Grmek Kosnik, A Kraigher, A Hocevar Grom, DM Poisson, D Rousseau, Defo Defo, E Estève I Perpar Veninšek, M Mueller Premru • An outbreak of mumps in Sweden, P OLICY AND G UIDELINES 2 0 7 February-April 2004 191 B Sartorius, P Penttinen, J Nilsson, K Johansen, • Preparations for implementing human papillomavirus K Jönsson, M Arneborn, M Löfdahl, J Giesecke vaccination should begin 207 M Lehtinen O UTBREAK DISPATCHES 1 9 4 • A nationwide outbreak of multiresistant Salmonella E RRATUM 2 0 7 Typhimurium var Copenhagen DT104B infection in Finland due to contaminated lettuce from Spain, May 2005 194 N EWS 2 0 8 J Takkinen, UM Nakari, T Johansson, T Niskanen, A Siitonen, M Kuusi N ATIONAL B ULLETINS • Outbreak of Clostridium difficile infection in an English hospital linked to hypertoxin-producing strains in Canada and the US 194 A Smith • Outbreak of rubella in the Madrid region, Spain, 2005 195 L Garcia • Over 2000 cases so far in Salmonella Hadar outbreak in Spain associated with consumption of pre-cooked chicken, July-August, 2005 196 A Lenglet • Salmonellosis outbreak linked to carpaccio made from imported raw beef, Denmark, June-August 2005 197 S Ethelberg S HORT REPORTS 1 9 8 • Isolation of Clostridium difficile ribotype 027, toxinotype III in the Netherlands after increase in C. difficile-associated diarrhoea 198 J van Steenbergen, S Debast, E van Kregten, R van den Berg, D Notermans, E Kuijper • Larger than usual increase in cases of hantavirus infections in Belgium, France and Germany, June 2005 198 A Mailles, M Abu Sin, G Ducoffre, P Heyman, J Koch, H Zeller • Large decrease in incidence of invasive Haemophilus influenzae b disease following introduction of routine vaccination in the Czech Republic 200 P Kriz, V Lebedova, C Benes • Death from rabies in a UK traveller returning from India 202 A Smith, M Petrovic, T Solomon, A Fooks • MRSA infections increasing in the Nordic countries 202 R Skov • First isolation of vaccine-derived poliovirus in Slovakia 203 E Máderová, M Sláciková, B Cernáková, Z Sobotová, K Nadová E DITORIAL E DITORIAL P RODUCTION OF E UROSURVEILLANCE TO BE SHARED WITH THE E C D C Editorial team, Eurosurveillance editorial office September 2005 marks a new stage in the continuing Eurosurveillance has always published important news from the development of Eurosurveillance, as a special working relationship national communicable disease surveillance centres as quickly and with the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control accurately as possible, so that the readers – mainly public health (ECDC, http://www.ecdc.eu.int) is implemented. The ECDC has and infectious disease professionals throughout Europe – have been mandated to publish a weekly epidemiological bulletin [1]. access to the information they need. Eurosurveillance will draw on ten years of publishing The first issue of Eurosurveillance was published experience to provide this service and be a platform The new editorial in September 1995, and for the past ten years, for dissemination of scientific information from the collaboration between Paris, the publication has been produced by an editorial ECDC. team based at the Institut de Veille Sanitaire in London and Stockholm Dr Karl Ekdahl, Strategic Advisor to the ECDC France and the Health Protection Agency (formerly Director, joined the editorial team as an Associate will be a further example the Public Health Laboratory Service) in the United Kingdom. Eurosurveillance has been funded and Editor, and work has begun to integrate the contents of European public health of the Eurosurveillance website into the new ECDC supported throughout this time by the European networking supported website. A member of the editorial team in London Commission’s Directorate-General for Health is taking up a secondment to the ECDC offices in by DG-SANCO and Consumer Protection (DG-SANCO). The new st editorial collaboration between Paris, London and Sweden from 1 October 2005, where the daily over the past decade intelligence briefings will become another source Stockholm will be a further example of European to inform the contents of Eurosurveillance [2]. The strengthened public health networking supported by DG-SANCO editorial team will introduce new features to build on the current over the past decade. publication format of news and short reports published weekly, and Note: An earlier version of this editorial was published online on 1 September 2002 longer papers published monthly. (http://eurosurveillanceorg/ew/2005/050901.asp#2) Through its weekly and monthly releases, Eurosurveillance References has aimed to provide authoritative, peer-reviewed information 1. ECDC Programme of Work for 2005-2006. 4 February 2005. ECDC, Stockholm, on communicable diseases from a European perspective. Every Sweden (http://www.ecdc.eu.int/documents/pdf/ecdc_work_programme.pdf) 2. Coulombier D, Paget J, Meijer A, Ganter B. Highly pathogenic avian influenza country of the European Union (and three other countries, Norway, reported to be spreading into western Russia. Eurosurveillance 2005; 10(8): Bulgaria and Romania) is represented on the editorial board. 18/09/2005 (http://www.eurosurveillance.org/ew/2005/050818.asp#1) 14 6 EUROSURVEILLANCE VOL.10 Issues 7 - 9 J u l - S e p t 2 0 0 5 E DITORIAL V ULNERABLE POPULATIONS : LESSONS LEARNT FROM THE SUMMER 2 0 0 3 HEAT WAVES IN E UROPE Gilles Brücker Director, Institut de Veille Sanitaire, Saint-Maurice, France What lessons can be learnt from the exceptionally long and Nowadays, most European countries have implemented severe heat wave experienced in Europe in 2003? surveillance and alert systems.