ECDC has published Monitoring current threats: ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report, week 7/2014. Click through to download the full report. The numbers for chikungunya in the Caribbean are much higher than I'd thought. The summary:
The ECDC Communicable Disease Threats Report is a weekly bulletin intended for epidemiologists and health professionals in the area of communicable disease prevention and control.
This issue covers the period 9 to 14 February 2014 and includes updates on:
Seasonal influenza in Europe
For the second consecutive week, the proportion of sentinel specimens testing positive for influenza virus has decreased with signs of declining influenza activity in some countries. Of the 27 countries providing clinical data, Greece reported high-intensity influenza activity, eight reported medium intensity and 18 countries reported low-intensity influenza activity.
Chikungunya in the Caribbean
During the past week, 490 new cases of chikungunya have been reported in the Caribbean. New confirmed cases were reported from the French part of Saint Martin (52), the Dutch part of the island (Sint Maarten, 5), Martinique (326), Saint Barthélemy (21) and Guadeloupe (81). Four additional cases were notified in Anguilla and one imported case was recorded in French Guyana. This is the first documented outbreak of chikungunya with local transmission in the Americas.
Zika virus in French overseas territories
The two French overseas territories French Polynesia and New Caledonia are currently experiencing an outbreak of Zika virus infection. Since the last update, more than three hundred new suspected cases have been reported in French Polynesia. The outbreak is subsiding in most affected islands of the territory. In New Caledonia, health authorities confirmed 19 new cases in the past week; 18 of them were locally transmitted. This outbreak could lead to travel-related imported cases in the European Union with no expected onward transmission during the European winter season, while there is a high risk for the disease to spread to other islands in the Pacific region, concludes the ECDC risk assessment published on 14 February 2014.
