[Childhood cancer incidence in French Brittany, 1991-2005].

Background: The aim of this study was to describe childhood cancer incidence in French Brittany from 1991 to 2005, as well as its temporal and geographical variations.

Methods: Childhood cancer incidence was analyzed from the data from the Brittany child tumor registry. Crude rates, world age standardized rates and cumulative rates were estimated for all cancers and for each diagnosis group.

Food poisoning outbreaks linked to mussels contaminated with okadaic acid and ester dinophysistoxin-3 in France, June 2009.

In June 2009, 11 outbreaks of food poisoning occurred in France, involving 45 individuals who had consumed mussels harvested in Vilaine Bay (Northwestern France). Because the toxic dinoflagellate Dinophysis spp. had been detected in the area from mid-May, okadaic acid (OA) and dinophysistoxins were suspected to be the cause of these outbreaks, although the weekly monitoring tests by mouse bioassay had been negative.

[Epidemiology of tuberculosis in French Brittany: cases notified between 2000 and 2007].

The authors studied the reported cases of tuberculosis diseases in Brittany between 2000 and 2007 via the mandatory notification scheme. One thousand nine hundred and seventy-five cases were notified during the study period. The incidence in French Brittany (eight cases per 100,000) was the third highest in France.

An oyster-associated hepatitis A outbreak in France in 2007.

Following the notification of nine hepatitis A cases clustered in the Cotes d Armor district in northwestern France, epidemiological, environmental and microbiological investigations were set up in order to identify the source and vehicle of contamination and implement control measures. In total, 111 cases were identified in the outbreak, all of whom lived or had stayed as tourists in the Cotes d Armor district. Of the cases, 87% had eaten raw shellfish, and 81% specifically oysters.