Electricity consumption in Finland influenced by climate effects of energetic particle precipitation.

It is known that electricity consumption in many cold Northern countries depends greatly on prevailing outdoor temperatures especially during the winter season. On the other hand, recent research has demonstrated that solar wind driven energetic particle precipitation from space into the polar atmosphere can influence the stratospheric polar vortex and tropospheric weather patterns during winter. These changes are significant, e.

High number of hospitalisations and non-classical presentations: lessons learned from a measles outbreak in 2017, Belgium.

We describe and analyse an outbreak of measles that affected Belgium early 2017. In total, 289 cases were reported, mostly (53%) in people 15 years or older. For 133 (46%) vaccination status was unknown and a further 117 (41%) were not vaccinated.

The value of seroprevalence data as surveillance tool for Lyme borreliosis in the general population: the experience of Belgium.

Background: Serological surveillance, based on the measurement of the presence of specific antibodies in a given population, can be used in addition to traditional and routine disease surveillance methods. The added value of this has been largely documented for vaccine-preventable diseases, but to a lesser extent for vector-borne diseases. This study aimed to evaluate the utility of seroprevalence data as additional source of information on the epidemiology of Lyme borreliosis in Belgium.

Strong increase of true and false positive mycobacterial cultures sent to the National Reference Centre in Belgium, 2007 to 2016.

IntroductionIn 2007, a new federal legislation in Belgium prohibited non-biosafety level 3 laboratories to process culture tubes suspected of containing mycobacteria.AimTo present mycobacterial surveillance/diagnosis data from the Belgian National Reference Centre for mycobacteria (NRC) from 2007 to 2016.MethodsThis retrospective observational study investigated the numbers of analyses at the NRC and false positive cultures (interpreted as containing mycobacteria at referring clinical laboratories, but with no mycobacterial DNA detected by PCR in the NRC).