Eurosurveillance
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South Korea is experiencing the largest outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus infections outside the Arabian Peninsula, with 166 laboratory-confirmed cases, including 24 deaths up to 19 June 2015. We estimated that the mean incubation period was 6.7 days and the mean serial interval 12.6 days. We found it unlikely that infectiousness precedes symptom onset. Based on currently available data, we predict an overall case fatality risk of 21% (95% credible interval: 14–31).
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Enterovirus D68 (EV-D68), phylogenetic clade B was identified in nasopharyngeal specimens of two cases of severe acute flaccid myelitis. The cases were six and five years-old and occurred in September and November 2014. EV-D68 is increasingly associated with acute flaccid myelitis in children, most cases being reported in the United States. Awareness of this possible neurological complication of enterovirus D68 infection is needed.
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We report a case of laboratory-confirmed Zika virus infection imported into Europe from the Americas. The patient developed fever, rash, and oedema of hands and feet after returning to Italy from Brazil in late March 2015. The case highlights that, together with chikungunya virus and dengue virus, three major arboviruses are now co-circulating in Brazil. These arboviruses represent a burden for the healthcare systems in Brazil and other countries where competent mosquito vectors are present.
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In the absence of a vaccine or specific treatments for Ebola virus disease (EVD), early identification of cases is crucial for the control of EVD epidemics. We evaluated a new extraction kit (SpeedXtract (SE), Qiagen) on sera and swabs in combination with an improved diagnostic reverse transcription recombinase polymerase amplification assay for the detection of Ebola virus (EBOV-RT-RPA). The performance of combined extraction and detection was best for swabs. ⋯ Of 928 post-mortem swabs, 120 tested positive, and the combined SE and EBOV-RT-RPA yielded a sensitivity and specificity of 100% in reference to one real-time RT-PCR assay. Another widely used real-time RT-PCR was much less sensitive than expected. Results were provided very fast within 30 to 60 min, and the field deployment of the mobile laboratory helped improve burial management and community engagement.