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Listeria monocytogenes is the pathogen responsible for one of the most common zoonosis spread through contaminated food. It is characterized by a high capacity to withstand poor environmental conditions and to form biofilm. In general population it is most often a food-born infection, but it affects especially pregnant women, newborns, elderly and immunosuppressed persons, causing meningoencephalitis in these patients, and rarely, cardiac or osteoarticular conditions etc. Over time, both sporadic and outbreaks with broad geographic distribution have been described in Africa, Europe, or in the United States of America. Over the last 3 years, Europe has faced an increased number of cases of listeriosis, spread due to frozen vegetables (especially corn). Using molecular tests, serotype IVb with the ST6 multilocular sequence was identified as prevalent during this outbreak. The contamination source is a Hungarian company that packed and sold frozen vegetables on the market. The infectious strain persisted despite cleansing and disinfection measures. It was subsequently spread to other European Union (EU) countries. Even if the frozen vegetables were largely distributed in Europe (including Romania), and the strain was isolated in more countries, human listerios linked to these strains were registered only in 5 states. Considerable efforts are being made in order to try to stop the spread of this outbreak by improving the hygiene, disinfection and control measures, and by withdrawing potentially contaminated products from the market. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction. Starting with 2016 Romania had to face an alarming measles outbreak due to the continuous poor vaccination coverage. The outbreak associated an increased number of complications and deaths. Materials and methods. We performed a retrospective study, on a group of patients with measles, admitted to „Dr. Victor Babes“ Hospital. Epidemiological data, clinical characteristics and the results of the biological samples were obtained from the patient's medical records between January 2016 and December 2017. Results. Out of the 632 patients, 341 (53.9%) were males. Most of them (39.2%) were children, between 1 and 4 year-old, while 19.6% were infants. A quarter of the patients (31.3%) had familial contact with a measles case. The vaccination history was unknown in 44.3% cases; almost half of the patients (47.1%) were unvaccinated. Almost all of them developed viral complications, 84.1% being diagnosed with interstitial pneumonia. Bacterial pneumonia was diagnosed in 15.0% cases, out of which 45.2% were also associated with respiratory failure. Six patients required transfer to the pediatric intensive care unit for respiratory support and 2 died. Other complications were: laryngitis 8.2%, otitis 12.0% of the cases. Also 61.77% of the patients were diagnosed with enterocolitis. There was no case complicated with encephalitis. 101 (15.9%) patients developed liver cytolysis, while dyselectrolytemia was present in 94 (14.8%) cases. Conclusions. The number of patients diagnosed with measles during the last years registered an alarming increase, especially in children under 4 year old, with a high number of complications. We consider it mandatory to apply the vaccination program to ensure an optimal vaccine coverage, useful both in stopping the current outbreak and in preventing future outbreaks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]