No abstract

A mumps outbreak occurred in a group of vaccinated children aged 3-4 years in San Sebastián (Gipuzkoa, Basque Country, Spain) in 2000 during the same period as a revaccination campaign against measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) was performed. The clinical cases were confirmed by viral culture, detection of viral RNA and/or specific IgM. Eighty-eight percent of the children had been vaccinated with the Rubini strain and the remainder with the Jeryl-Lynn strain. The attack rate was 47.9% (35 cases in 73 school-attending children of this age). The outbreak was caused by an H genotype strain of mumps virus which was circulating at the same time as a D genotype strain that caused sporadic cases. By sequencing the small hydrophobic (SH) gene, the strains of the clinical cases were identified as wild-type mumps virus with heterologous genotypes in comparison to the vaccine strains used in our area.

An outbreak of pharyngoconjunctival fever affecting 59 children was detected in a municipality of northern Spain in July 2008. The outbreak was related to insufficient doses of water disinfectant in the municipal swimming pool. Adenovirus was detected in the pharyngeal swabs of five of six affected children and the four strains that were sequenced were all Adenovirus type 4.

Early this year, 21 people became ill with trichinellosis in both Spain and Sweden. This was traced to consumption of home-made wild boar sausage from an original source in Spain.

From October to December 2011, an outbreak of 26 cases of cryptosporidiosis occurred in a day-care centre in Gipuzkoa, Spain. The infection spread from person to person and affected 24 children under two years of age (attack rate: 38%) and two caregivers. Cryptosporidium oocysts were observed in 10 of 15 samples. During 2010, only four cases of cryptosporidium were detected in Gipuzkoa, and 27 overall in Spain.