Apart from the economic consequences and dangers, listeriosis remains of great public health concern because of its high case fatality, and its common source epidemic potential. Changes in the way food is produced and distributed have created the potential for diffuse and widespread outbreaks involving many countries as a result of contamination of a widely distributed commercial food product. Because these outbreaks can be dispersed with a limited number of cases in each country, they are likely to go undetected without pooling information from these countries. Improved surveillance that combines rapid sub-typing methods, cluster identification, and collaborative epidemiological investigation can identify and halt these potentially large outbreaks. The Institut de veille sanitaire in St Maurice and the Institut Pasteur in Paris received funding from the European Commission DG SANCO, to carry out a European survey on the surveillance of human listeriosis and on methodologies and practices of national reference laboratories for Listeria. The aim of this project was to identify the need for, and to define the feasibility and scope of a European network on Listeria infections based on an inventory and comparative analysis of existing surveillance systems as well as national reference laboratories for Listeria throughout the European Union (EU). This reports summarises the findings from the survey and the results of the discussions during the project meetings with the participants. It also discusses the recommendations made by the participants for a future European network for human Listeria infections. (R.A.)
Auteur : de Valk H, Jacquet C, Vaillant V, Perra A
Année de publication
: 2003
Pages : 107 p.
