Navigation und Service

Meningitis epidemic in Romania - imported foods do not constitute a risk

14/1999, 13.09.1999

Together with other German institutions, BgVV experts support local health authorities in conjunction with the WHO activities

Since the beginning of July there has been a meningitis epidemic in Moldavia in north-east Romania. The cities Lasi, Neamt, Bacau, Bocosani, Suceava and Constanta in the Black Sea have been particularly badly affected. Up to now approximately 5,000 people have become ill. The course of the disease involving symptoms like fever, neck stiffness, headaches, fatigue is described as being relatively mild. There have been no fatalities.

This is an enterovirus epidemic. The Romanian virologists at the Institute Cantacuzino, Bucharest, isolated ECHO viruses of the types 4, 7 and 30 from the patient material. This is not unusual for that time of year. As different virus types are predominant at different locations, this is not a uniform epidemic outbreak. Other viruses (West-Nile Virus, polio viruses, Coxsacki viruses) could not be detected in conjunction with this epidemic.

It is assumed that contact with contaminated water (bathing water, contaminated drinking water) was the starting point for the epidemic and close contacts to the people infected also promoted its spread. There are no indications that other foods constitute a risk. According to the Romanian authorities no foods are being exported from the epidemic areas. The risk of infection can be dramatically reduced by complying with the fundamental rules of personal hygiene and avoiding bathing in unauthorised waters. Up to now, one German tourist has fallen ill after returning from Romania. However the patient could already leave the hospital.

The control measures, virological diagnostics and epidemiological analyses are being conducted very carefully and thoroughly by the Romanian health authorities and scientists in the local institutes concerned.

A team under the aegis of the World Health Organisation consisting of epidemiologists and virologists from the Federal Institute for Health Protection of Consumers and Veterinary Medicine, the Robert Koch Institute and the Institute for Medical Microbiology of the University of Munich is supporting them on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Health in Bonn.

Up