Are vaccinated measles cases protected against severe disease?

OBJECTIVES: We aimed to estimate vaccine effectiveness against severe measles based on the number of vaccine doses administered and the time since last vaccination. PATIENTS AND METHODS: We included measles cases aged at least 2 years and born since 1980 who were notified in France between 2006 and mid-2019. We considered two severity levels (moderate, severe) and calculated adjusted relative risks (aRR) using multinomial logistic regression. RESULTS: We included 10,399 cases. The risk of severe measles in two-dose vaccine recipients was 71% (aRR = 0.29 [95%CI 0.12-0.72]) and 83% (aRR = 0.17 [95%CI 0.04-0.70]) lower than in unvaccinated cases, if the time since last dose was less or more than 15 years, respectively. The risk of moderate disease followed a similar pattern. CONCLUSIONS: Two-dose measles vaccination provided long-term protection against severe cases, even after vaccine failures. These findings underscore the need for compliance to the recommended measles vaccination schedule to prevent severe cases.

EpiSouth: a network for communicable disease control in the Mediterranean region and the Balkans.

The countries around the Mediterranean Sea share epidemiological characteristics and public health problems. In 2006 the EpiSouth Project was started as a framework for collaboration for communicable diseases surveillance and training in the Mediterranean Basin. As of December 2008, 26 countries from southern Europe, the Balkans, North Africa and the Middle-East are members of EpiSouth and several international organisations and institutions collaborate: the European Commission (EC), the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), the Italian Ministry of Work, Health and Social Policies and the World Health Organization (WHO). The project is coordinated by the Italian national public health institute and three work packages (WPs) Cross-border epidemic intelligence, vaccine preventable diseases and migrants and Cross-border emerging zoonoses are operated by the national institutes of France, Bulgaria and Greece. These WPs constitute technical pillars on which the project develops. Networking and Training are WPs dedicated to capacity building and are run by the Padua Teaching Hospital (Italy) and the Spanish national public health institute. A steering committee guides EpiSouth's activities while all countries collaborate through WP steering teams and focal points. A number of outcomes have been accomplished and documents with results are available from the EpiSouth website which hosts a public website and a restricted area for direct sharing of information among the participants. Five electronic bulletins were published, two trainings for 63 participants performed, national epidemic intelligence systems were evaluated, a preliminary survey on vaccine-preventable diseases and migrants performed, and a list of priorities for emerging zoonoses in the Mediterranean area was selected. Overall the network succeeded in creating cohesion, mutual trust and concrete collaboration on cross-border public health issues in a geographical area that is not addressed as a whole by any other initiative or organisation.

In the European Union, TB patients from former Soviet countries have a high risk of multidrug resistance.

SETTING: Fourteen countries of the European Union (EU). OBJECTIVE: To explore determinants of resistance to isoniazid and rifampicin (multidrug-resistant tuberculosis [MDR-TB]) among tuberculosis (TB) patients in the EU. DESIGN: Pooled TB case notification data for 2003 from the-Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania) and Austria, Belgium, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden and the UK were investigated using bivariate and multivariable analysis. RESULTS: Of 12,109 cases with data, MDR-TB occurred in 709 cases, 91% of whom were from countries of the former Soviet Union (FSU), including the Baltic States. At multivariable analysis, MDR-TB was strongly associated with previous treatment in both Baltic and non-Baltic countries (adjusted OR 9.5 and 6.4, respectively), and inversely related to age >64 years (OR 0.4 and 0.2). In non-Baltic countries, MDR-TB was more strongly related to origin from the FSU (OR 19.7, reference non-Baltic EU) than from other regions (up to OR 2.3). Among cases pooled from all countries, provenance from the FSU was very strongly linked to MDR-TB in both previously untreated (OR 24.9) and previously treated (OR 53.7) cases. CONCLUSION: Within a context of increasing mobility, public health workers should be aware of a higher risk for MDR-TB among patients from the FSU as well as among patients previously treated for TB.