Once a year, countries that collaborate in the European Surveillance Scheme for Travel Associated Legionnaires' Disease (EWGLINET) are requested to submit a dataset that provides epidemiological and microbiological information on cases of legionnaires' disease (nosocomial (hospital-acquired), community and travel related) detected in their country for that year. This paper presents the data collected for 2003 and 2004. For this period, 9166 cases were reported to the dataset by 35 countries, of which 941 cases were associated with outbreaks. Fourteen countries reported a total of 218 detected outbreaks. National infection rates varied between countries from 28.7 to less than one case per million population. This information is valuable in that it allows countries to assess the effectiveness of their national surveillance schemes in detecting cases. Over the two year period, 748 cases were reported to have died, giving a case fatality rate of 8.2%. The lack of detailed epidemiological information on deaths from legionnaires' disease is highlighted. The establishment of the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control is seen as an opportunity to develop European collaborations more fully, and to increase further the protection of Europeans from outbreaks of legionnaires' disease.

WCS may be an important source of sporadic, community-acquired cases of Legionnaires' disease, an observation that has important implications for health protection, especially given the likely increase in such systems as a component of strategies to improve energy efficiency in buildings.

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Much data has been gathered by the EWGLINET scheme on the distribution of cases of travel-associated Legionnaires' disease (TALD) by country of infection, but less analysis has been carried out on the distribution of these cases within countries. Travel-associated cases with onset in 2002 linked to France, Italy, Spain and Turkey were mapped. Rates of Legionnaires' disease per 100,000 tourists were calculated for internal and foreign visitors for the regions of each country, and mapped. Rates of 1.5 cases/100,000 and 2 cases/100,000 tourists were classified as 'high' and 'very high' respectively. Cases of TALD were concentrated in certain regions, but when rates were calculated using tourist data, the results were relatively constant throughout each country. Rates were higher among foreign visitors than internal visitors; three of the countries had at least one region with 'high' rates, whilst Turkey additionally had three regions with 'very high' rates.

Four cases of legionnaires’ disease have recently been reported in one Norwegian, one Finn and two people from Sweden. These patients were all among guests staying at a hotel in Patong Beach, Phuket, Thailand since 20 November 2006.