Investigation of outbreak cases infected with the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.640 variant in a fully vaccinated elderly population, Normandy, France, November to December 2021.

Three confirmed infections with the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.640 variant under monitoring were reported in Normandy, north-western France in late November 2021. Investigations led to the identification of two events linked to the same cluster. A total of 75 confirmed and probable B.1.640 cases were reported. All had completed the primary vaccination series. Sixty-two cases were older than 65 years. Fifty-six cases had symptoms and four were hospitalised. This investigation provides preliminary results concerning a variant with limited information currently available.

Vector-borne transmission of Zika virus in Europe, southern France, August 2019.

On 1 October 2019, a locally-acquired Zika virus disease case was laboratory confirmed in Hyères, Var department. Active case finding identified two additional locally-acquired cases living within 90 m, with symptom onset 8 days before the index case. Extensive patient interviews did not yield information supporting transmission through sexual contact or substances of human origin. Vector-borne transmission by local Aedes albopictus mosquitoes is the most likely mode of transmission. Here we describe the public health response.

Francisella tularensis infection: variable clinical aspects with persistent pulmonary nodules presentation, a case series of human tularemia in Franche-Comté, France.

Tularemia is a zoonotic infectious disease caused by the facultative intracellular Gram-negative bacterium Francisella tularensis. Depending on the transmission route of this agent tularemia can present itself as a local infection or a systemic disease. We describe herein three cases of confirmed tularemia in immunocompetent patients during the summer of 2019; two patients with unusual respiratory presentation and pulmonary nodules on imaging, following exposure to aerosols. The third patient was a hunter presenting with a classical ulceroglandular form occurring 4 days after a tick bite in Bourgogne Franche-Comté. All patients were diagnosed from the results of positive F. tularensis PCR (or universal PCR targeting the 16S ribosomal ribonucleic acid gene) and/or seroconversion. The patient with ulceroglandular form received antibiotics, with a complete recovery. The two patients with pneumonic tularemia recovered without antibiotic treatment.  However, pulmonary nodules persisted on follow-up CT months later, despite overall clinical recovery.