A cluster of measles linked to an imported case, Finland, 2017.

One imported and five secondary cases of measles were detected in Finland between June and August 2017. The measles sequences available for five laboratory-confirmed cases were identical and belonged to serotype D8. The large number of potentially exposed Finnish and foreign individuals called for close cooperation of national and international public health authorities and other stakeholders. Raising awareness among healthcare providers and ensuring universally high vaccination coverage is crucial to prevent future clusters and outbreaks.

Health Care Professionals' Evidence-Based Medicine Internet Searches Closely Mimic the Known Seasonal Variation of Lyme Borreliosis: A Register-Based Study.

BACKGROUND: Both health care professionals and nonprofessionals seek medical information on the Internet. Using Web-based search engine searches to detect epidemic diseases has, however, been problematic. Physician's databases (PD) is a chargeable evidence-based medicine (EBM) portal on the Internet for health care professionals and is available throughout the entire health care system in Finland. Lyme borreliosis (LB), a well-defined disease model, shows temporal and regional variation in Finland. Little data exist on health care professionals' searches from Internet-based EBM databases in public health surveillance. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to assess whether health care professionals' use of Internet EBM databases could describe seasonal increases of the disease and supplement routine public health surveillance. METHODS: Two registers, PD and the register of primary health care diagnoses (Avohilmo), were used to compare health care professionals' Internet searches on LB from EBM databases and national register-based LB diagnoses in order to evaluate annual and regional variations of LB in the whole country and in three selected high-incidence LB regions in Finland during 2011-2015. RESULTS: Both registers, PD and Avohilmo, show visually similar patterns in annual and regional variation of LB in Finland and in the three high-incidence LB regions during 2011-2015. CONCLUSIONS: Health care professionals' Internet searches from EBM databases coincide with national register diagnoses of LB. PD searches showed a clear seasonal variation. In addition, notable regional differences were present in both registers. However, physicians' Internet medical searches should be considered as a supplementary source of information for disease surveillance.