Background: Varicella (chickenpox) is the primary disease caused by varicella-zoster virus. It is extremely contagious and is frequent in children. Indeed, in the absence of vaccination, a high proportion of the population is liable to contract it. Herpes zoster -more frequent among adultsis caused by reactivation of the latent virus. The objective of this study is to describe the status of and time trend for varicella and herpes zoster in the Madrid Autonomous Region prior to the introduction of the vaccine to the general population.

Acute flaccid paralysis (AFP) surveillance is key for global polio eradication. It allows detecting poliovirus (PV) reintroductions from endemic countries. This study describes AFP surveillance in Spain from 1998 to 2015. During this time, 678 AFP cases were reported to the Spanish National Surveillance Network. The mean notification rate was 0.58 AFP cases/100,000 population under 15 years old (range: 0.45/100,000–0.78/100,000). Two periods (P) are described: P1 (1998–2006) with the AFP notification rate ranging from 0.66/100,000 to 0.78/100,000, peaking in 2001 (0.84/100,000); and P2 (2007–2015) when the AFP rate ranged from 0.43/100,000 to 0.57/100,000, with the lowest rate in 2009 (0.31/100,000). No poliomyelitis cases were caused by wild PV infections, although two Sabin-like PVs and one imported vaccine-derived PV-2 were detected. Overall, 23 (3.4%) cases met the hot case definition. Most cases were clinically diagnosed with Guillain–Barré syndrome (76.9%; 504/655). The adequate stool collection rate ranged from 33.3% (7/21) to 72.5% (29/40). The annual proportion of AFP cases with non-polio enterovirus findings varied widely across the study period. AFP surveillance with laboratory testing for non-polio enteroviruses must be maintained and enhanced both to monitor polio eradication and to establish sensitive surveillance for prompt detection of other enteroviruses causing serious symptoms.

Higher Education is demanding the need of a greater connection between its academic offer and the necessary civic engagement of the graduates. This has given Spain the opportunity, for just over a decade, to develop the methodology of service-learning, which combines both the theoretical and practical aspect of university learning with the practical development of solidarity and civic commitment of the students. At the Universidad Nacional de Educación a Distancia (UNED, Spain) we have designed an online service-learning proposal, based on the virtual exchange which occurs between the students from the UNED and the University of Porto-Novo (Benin), requiring practical classes of Spanish. The result favours continuing with this virtual service-learning project aimed at the exchange with other universities; strengthening the planning of the training proposal for the development of ethical competence and civic engagement; the design of solidarity service action that enhances global citizenship and intercultural dialogue, consolidates digital competence, etc., all in a virtual educational environment.

Innovation is undoubtedly one of the key factors in assessing the best contemporary pedagogical outcomes. Our paper approaches the notion of virtual learning-service as an innovative modality that allows the inclusion and development of this methodology in distance or virtual educational environments. Specifically, we seek to provide a definition based on experience that also serves to identify elements and practices that allow others to start in this particular modality of service-learning. Therefore, we try to reflect on what elements and related practices help to define the development of this type of project. We believe that this reflexive approach would allow us to conceptualize the experience in a specific project of virtual learning-service and identify the key elements that would allow for replication in other contexts.

The last decade have witnessed the unprecedented development of information and communication technologies. This has, in turn, enabled the growth and development of other sectors, such as, for example, that of distance and on-line learning. In this context of technological expansion in education it is appropriate to reflect pedagogically about technological resources and their educational purpose. That is, how to deploy the available technological resources and media in a fashion consistent with the desired educational objectives and aims. Virtual Service-Learning has emerged as a particular modality of this methodology that combines and reinforces two elements: technology applied to education and service as a pedagogic tool. This format then, reveals itself as an appropriate methodology through which to channel both technical and pedagogic innovation. In this work and, taking as reference a study focusing on two virtual Service-Learning projects, we will address the construction of a theoretical framework that will allow us to understand and improve the development of these practices through this pedagogic modality.