Eurosurveillance Vol. 12 · Issues 10-12 · Oct-Dec 2007 www.eurosurveillance.org In this issue • The challenge of chlamydia: an in-depth look at the Swedish Chlamydia trachomatis variant and other issues related to the disease • The burden of infectious diseases in Europe: a pilot study Also • Euroroundup: Legionnaires’ disease in Europe, 2005-2006 Vol. 12 · Issues 10-12 · Oct-Dec 2007 · Oct-Dec 10-12 · Issues 12 Vol. EUROPEAN CENTRE FOR DISEASE PREVENTION AND CONTROL Vol. 12 · Issues 10–12 · Oct–Dec 2007 Peer-reviewed European information on communicable disease surveillance and control Contents Editorials Why a burden of disease study? 300 Editorial Team • Based at the European Centre for Zsuzsanna Jakab Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Managing Legionnaires’ disease in Europe: the need for international 171 83 Stockholm | Sweden • collaboration 302 Telephone Number: Carol Joseph +46 (0) 8 586 01138 or +46 (0) 8 586 01136 Fax number: • Chlamydia: a major challenge for public health 304 +46 (0) 8 586 01001 Marita JW van de Laar, Servaas A Morré E-mail: [email protected] Editor-in-Chief Special topic Karl Ekdahl Results of a Europe-wide investigation to assess the presence of a new variant of Managing Editor • Ines Steffens Chlamydia trachomatis 306 Assistant Editors EJ Savage, CA Ison, MJW van de Laar and the ESSTI network Jeremy Duns • Reasons for the sharp increase of genital chlamydia infections reported in the first Kathrin Hagmaier 311 Renata Mikolajczyk months of 2007 in Sweden I Velicko, S Kühlmann-Berenzon, A Blaxhult Associate Editors Andrea Ammon, ECDC, Stockholm, Sweden • Mutant Chlamydia trachomatis in Denmark 316 Mike Catchpole, Health Protection Agency, S Hoffmann, JS Jensen London, United Kingdom Denis Coulombier, ECDC, Stockholm, Sweden • Monitoring the potential introduction of the Swedish Chlamydia trachomatis Christian Drosten, Bernhard-Nocht-Institut für variant (swCT) in the Netherlands 318 Tropenmedizin, Hamburg, Germany SA Morré, A Catsburg, M de Boer, J Spaargaren, HJC de Vries, J Schirm, PHM Savelkou, Johan Giesecke, ECDC, Stockholm, Sweden J van Steenbergen, C Swaan Herman Goossens, Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium • French situation concerning the Swedish Chlamydia trachomatis variant 321 David Heymann, World Health Organisation, Geneva, Switzerland B de Barbeyrac, S Raherison, S Cado, F Normandin, M Clerc, V Clairet, C Bébéar, Karl Kristinsson, Landspitali University Hospital, V Goulet Reykjavik, Iceland 323 Irena Klavs, National Institute of Public Health, • Trends in genital chlamydia infection in the Mid-West of Ireland, 2001-2006 Ljubljana, Slovenia D Whyte, J Powell, M Horgan, N O’Connell, R FitzGerald, R Monahan, T Greally Daniel Lévy-Bruhl, Institut de Veille Sanitaire, Paris, France Richard Pebody, Health Protection Agency, London, United Kingdom R e s e arch ar ti cle Panayotis T. Tassios, University of Athens, Athens, Greece • The burden of infectious diseases in Europe: a pilot study 327 Hélène Therre, Institut de Veille Sanitaire, Paris, France EA van Lier, AH Havelaar, A Nanda Henriette de Valk, Institut de Veille Sanitaire, • Exploration of cost effectiveness of active vaccination in the control of a school Paris, France outbreak of hepatitis A in a deprived community in the United Kingdom 334 Sylvie van der Werf, Institut Pasteur, Paris, France DC Taylor-Robinson, M Regan, N Crowcroft, JV Parry, E Dardamissis Editorial Board • General practitioners’ role in the notification of communicable diseases – study in See inner back cover Malta 339 Layout and webmaster C Gauci, H Gilles, S O’Brien, J Mamo, N Calleja ECDC/HCU webteam www.eurosurveillance.org © Eurosurveillance, 2007 The opinions expressed by authors contributing to Eurosurveillance do not necessarily reflect All material in Eurosurveillance is in the public domain and may be the opinions of the European Centre for Disease used and reprinted without special permission. However, the source Prevention and Control (ECDC) or the Editorial team should be cited properly and we suggest adding a link to the exact or the institutions with which the authors are affiliated. Neither the ECDC nor any person acting page on the Eurosurveillance website. on behalf of the ECDC is responsible for the use which might be made of the information in this journal. Vol. 12 · Issues 10–12 · Oct–Nov 2007 Contents Surveillance report Short reports • Pilot scheme for monitoring sickness absence in schools during the 2006/07 • Identification of Klebsiella pneumoniae carbapenemase (KPC) in Sweden 383 winter in England: can these data be used as a proxy for influenza activity? 346 K Tegmark Wisell, S Hæggman, L Gezelius, O Thompson, I Gustafsson, T Ripa, B Olsson- P Mook, C Joseph, P Gates, N Phin Liljequist • Risk groups and uptake of influenza and pneumococcal vaccine in Ireland 350 • A case of Clostridium difficile-associated disease due to the highly virulent clone of J Mereckiene, J O’Donnell, C Collins, S Cotter, D Igoe, D O’Flanagan Clostridium difficile PCR ribotype 027, March 2007 in Germany 385 K NH Zaiß, J Weile, G Ackermann, E Kuijper, W Witte, U Nübel • Clusters of travel-associated Legionnaires’ disease in Italy, Spain and France, July 2002 - June 2006 354 • Confirmed cases and report of clusters of severe infections due toClostridium MC Rota, R Cano-Portero, D Che, MG Caporali, V Hernando, C Campese difficile PCR ribotype 027 in Germany 387 N Kleinkauf, B Weiss, A Jansen, T Eckmanns, B Bornhofen, E Kühnen, H-P Weil, H Michels • Results of a 12-month long enhanced surveillance of listeriosis in Italy 357 MV Gianfranceschi, A Gattuso, MC D’Ottavio, S Fokas, P Aureli • Outbreak of Salmonella Weltevreden infections in Norway, Denmark and Finland associated with alfalfa sprouts, July-October 2007 389 • Rubella immunity and vaccination coverage of the population of northern KE Emberland, S Ethelberg, M Kuusi, L Vold, L Jensvoll, B-A Lindstedt, K Nygård, Greece in 2006 360 C Kjelsø, M Torpdahl, G Sørensen, T Jensen, S Lukinmaa, T Niskanen, G Kapperud G Gioula, A Fylaktou, M Exindari, G Atmatzidis, D Chatzidimitriou, A Melidou, V Kyriazopoulou-Dalaina • STEC O157 outbreak in Iceland, September-October 2007 391 G Sigmundsdottir, A Atladottir, H Hardardottir, E Gudmundsdottir, M Geirsdottir, H Briem • Nosocomial infections and community clusters of pertussis in France, 2000-2005 364 • STEC O157 outbreak in Iceland, September-October 2007 392 I Bonmarin, I Poujol, D Levy-Bruhl I Friesema, B Schimmer, O Stenvers, A Heuvelink, E de Boer, K van der Zwaluw, C de Jager, D Notermans, I van Ouwerkerk, R de Jonge, W van Pelt • Contact tracing of passengers exposed to an extensively drug-resistant O u t b re ak re p o r t tuberculosis case during an air flight from Beirut to Paris, October 2006 393 J Chemardin, M-C Paty, S Renard-Dubois, N Veziris, D Antoine • Outbreak of salmonellosis in a restaurant in Stockholm, Sweden, September – October 2006 368 B de Jong, J Öberg, B Svenungsson C o n fe re n c e re p o r t Euroroundup • Meeting report from the Third European Congress of Virology, 1-5 September • Legionnaires’ disease in Europe: 2005-2006 371 2007 in Nuremberg, Germany 395 KD Ricketts, CA Joseph on behalf of the European Working Group for Legionella Editorial team, Eurosurveillance editorial office Infections (EWGLI) • DIPNET – establishment of a dedicated surveillance network for diphtheria in Europe 377 S Neal, A Efstratiou on behalf of DIPNET* The Eurosurveillance print edition is a compilation of weekly and monthly electronic releases published on the Eurosurveillance website. Only a representative selection of Eurosurveillance’s weekly release articles from each three month period are printed here, and the full listing of Articles published in Eurosurveillance all Eurosurveillance articles can be found in the Archives section of are indexed in PubMed/MEDLINE the website. Editorial W h y a b u r d e n o f d i s e a s e s t u d y ? Zsuzsanna Jakab ([email protected]) Director, European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, Stockholm, Sweden From the time I was appointed as Director of the European Centre has shown that the development and use of such measures can help for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) in 2005, I and the ECDC to bring about significant improvement and attention to the quality Governing and Advisory Bodies faced the task of tackling the 46 and completeness of the underlying data, which have historically diseases under mandatory notification in the European Union (EU), perhaps not had the attention and resources required (even given as well as severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), avian influenza EU Member States’ strong historical civil registration systems). and West Nile virus. The evidence for deciding on relative priorities was limited, especially as the ECDC’s first Annual Epidemiological Therefore, in the autumn of 2006 the ECDC decided to explore Report (AER) for 2005 describing the Communicable Disease (CD) the potential of the use of composite measures as one element situation in the EU was in preparation stage. to help guide public health policy and actions in the area of CDs. This was done through the launch of a three-month pilot study Furthermore, it was clear that although the public health together with the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and community “knows” that CD have in general decreased the Environment (RIVM), which was supported and funded by the substantially in Europe over the last century, it was also clear Ministry of Health and Welfare of the Netherlands. Given the very that new CDs have started to emerge and old ones re-emerge. short time available (due to the deadlines for the AER), it was However, “evidence” is lacking, both for when the century-old clear that this would only be possible by using existing composite historical decreasing curve started to rise again and for the rate of measures and generally available data and covering a limited the current increase.