ECDC: All 27 SARI cases reported since the start of flu season in Europe were in Romania

[Giuseppe]

From ECDC weekly influenza bulletin, full PDF document: http://www.ecdc.europa.eu/en/publica...e_Overview.pdf

On FT: http://www.flutrackers.com/forum/sho...d.php?t=155604

Excerpt:

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Hospital surveillance ? severe acute - respiratory infection (SARI) - Weekly analysis ? SARI

During week 46/2010, nine SARI cases were reported.

Since week 40/2010, a total of 27 SARI cases have been reported, all in Romania, representing a notification rate of 0.4 per 100000 population. Figure 5 displays the number of cases by week of onset.

Six of the nine cases reported for week 46/2010 were male, five of them less than two years old (Table 4).

All cases presented with acute respiratory distress syndrome, but it is unknown if any of them were due to influenza (Table 5).

One of the nine cases had previously been vaccinated against the pandemic A(H1N1) 2009 virus. Three elderly patients and one of the infants had underlying conditions.

Five cases, one having an underlying condition, were admitted to intensive care.

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Table 4: Number of SARI cases by age and gender, week 46/2010

[Age groups - Male - Female]

• Under 2 - 5 - ...
• 2-17 - ... - 1
• >=60 - 1 - 2
• Total - 6 - 3

Table 5: Number of SARI cases by influenza type and subtype, week 46/2010

[Virus Type / Subtype - Number of cases during current week / Cumulative Number of cases since the start of the season]

• Influenza A
  • A (pandemic H1N1) - ... - ...
  • A (subtyping not performed) - ... - ...
  • A (H3) - ... - ...
  • A (H1) - ... - ...
  • A (H5) - ... - ...
• Influenza B - ... - ...
• Unknown - 9 - 27
• Total - 9 - 27

Note: A(pandemic H1) 2009, A(H3) and A(H1) include both N-subtyped and not N-subtyped viruses.

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[alert]

Re: ECDC: All 27 SARI cases reported since the start of flu season in Europe were in Romania

Very interesting. And five of the nine cases this week were under 2 years old (and three of the other four were over age 60). It looks, IMO, if this is mostly RSV and not influenza judging by the age groups affected.

Unclear why Romania would be affected more than any other country, though. Perhaps it is a reporting issue - do we really believe there hasn't been one severe respiratory infection, caused by any pathogen, in all of the rest of Europe this season?