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Volume 9, Number 1—January 2003
Research

Viral Gastroenteritis Outbreaks in Europe, 1995–2000

Ben Lopman*†Comments to Author , Mark Reacher*, Yvonne van Duijnhoven‡, François-Xavier Hanon§, David Brown†, and Marion Koopmans‡1
Author affiliations: *Public Health Laboratory Service Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre, London, England; †Central Public Health Laboratory, London, England; ‡National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), The Netherlands; §Statens Serum Institute, Copenhagen, Denmark

Main Article

Table 2

National coverage and use of clinical definitions for viral gastroenteritis by European surveillance systems

Country National coverage %a Definition of viral gastroenteritis outbreakb Laboratory confirmation required Outbreak definition applied
As entry criteria in database Retrospectively for analysis
Denmark
 100
 Kaplan’s, shellfish
Always
 Always
England and Wales
 100
 General
 Yes
 Always
 Never
Finland
 100
 Clinical
 Yes
 Always
 Never
France
 100
 Clinical, shellfish
Always
 Never
Germany
Italy
 1
 Clinical
Always
 Always
Slovenia
 100
 Clinical
Sometimes
 Sometimes
Spain
 100
 General
 Yes
 Always
 Sometimes
Sweden
 100
 Kaplan’s, clinical
 Yes
 Always
 Sometimes
the Netherlands 100 System 1: clinical
System 2: Kaplan’s
System 3: clinical Yes
Yes Sometimes Always

aRefers to geographic coverage by surveillance, not completeness of reporting.
bKaplan’s, Kaplan’s criteria for recognition of Norovirus outbreaks (33); clinical, clinical criteria (different from Kaplan’s) specifying that cases must be clustered in time and place; general, general definition used for all outbreaks of gastroenteritis with laboratory confirmation required to attribute outbreak to viral pathogen; shellfish, specific criteria used for identifying shellfish outbreaks.

Main Article

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Main Article

1On behalf of the Foodborne Viruses in Europe group, which includes: the Netherlands: M. Koopmans, H. Vennena, Y. van Duynhoven, and M.A. Widdowson,; Finland: K.-H. von Bonsdorff, L. Maunula; Denmark: B. Böttiger, K. Mølbak, F.X. Hanon; Sweden: L. Svensson, K.-O. Hedlund, Maria Thorvag, Juan Carrique-Mas; United Kingdom: D. Brown, M. Reacher, J. Green, B. Lopman; Germany: E. Schreier, H. Gelderblom, Andrea Ammon; Spain: A. Sanchez-Faquier, G. Hernández-Pezzi, A. Bosch, J. Buesa; France: F. LeGuyader, P. Pothier, E. Kohli; Italy: F. Ruggeri, D. DeMedici; and Slovenia: M. Poljsak-Prijatelj, A. Hocevar-Grom.

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