Epidemiology and zoonotic transmission of -positive and carbapenemase-producing Enterobacterales on German turkey farms.

Introduction: The emergence of carbapenem-resistant bacteria causing serious infections may lead to more frequent use of previously abandoned antibiotics like colistin. However, mobile colistin resistance genes () can jeopardise its effectiveness in both human and veterinary medicine. In Germany, turkeys have been identified as the food-producing animal most likely to harbour -positive colistin-resistant Enterobacterales (-Col-E).

Effectiveness of Trainings of General Practitioners on Antibiotic Stewardship: Methods of a Pragmatic Quasi-Experimental Study in a Controlled Before-After Design in South-East-Lower Saxony, Germany (WASA).

Antibiotic resistance is a serious threat to global public health. It reduces the effectiveness of treatments for serious bacterial infections and thus increases the risk of fatal outcomes. Antibiotic prescriptions are often not in line with clinical evidence-based guidelines.

[Tuberculosis Contact Investigation: Eight Years of Experience with the QuantiFERON-TB®Gold In-Tube in Lower Saxony, Germany].

Since the beginning of the 21 century, beside tuberculin skin tests (TST) and chest X-rays, interferon-gamma release assays (IGRA) have become available for diagnosing latent tuberculosis infection. In 2006, the Governmental Institute of Public Health of Lower Saxony (NLGA) established the IGRA in its laboratory, using the QuantiFERON-TBGold In-Tube (QFT). A cohort of 19 309 contact persons who were investigated during contact tracing by local public health departments (LPHD) was analyzed.

Definitions of urban areas feasible for examining urban health in the European Union.

As part of the EU-funded project, European Urban Health Indicator System (EURO-URHIS), a definition of urban areas (UAs) and of urban populations was needed to be able to identify comparable UAs in all member states. A literature review on existing definitions, as well as those used by other relevant projects, was performed. A survey of national experts in public health or land planning was also conducted.

Epidemiological analysis of a cluster within the outbreak of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli serotype O104:H4 in Northern Germany, 2011.

In May 2011 one of the worldwide largest outbreaks of haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) and bloody diarrhoea caused by Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) serotype O104:H4 occurred in Germany. One of the most affected federal states was Lower Saxony. We present the investigation of a cluster of STEC and HUS cases within this outbreak by means of a retrospective cohort study.