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Abstract Background Although vaccination has been proved to be a safe, efficacious, and cost-effective intervention, immunisation rates remain suboptimal in many European countries, resulting in poor control of many vaccine-preventable diseases. Discussion The Summit of Independent European Vaccination Experts focused on the perception of vaccines and vaccination by the general public and healthcare professionals and discussed ways to improve vaccine uptake in Europe. Despite the substantial impact and importance of the media, healthcare professionals were identified as the main advocates for vaccination and the most important source of information about vaccines for the general public. Healthcare professionals should receive more support for their own education on vaccinology, have rapid access to up-to-date information on vaccines, and have easy access to consultation with experts regarding vaccination-related problems. Vaccine information systems should be set up to facilitate promotion of vaccination. Summary Every opportunity to administer vaccines should be used, and active reminder systems should be set up. A European vaccine awareness week should be established.

Aim: The aim of this article is to analyse fire and explosion properties of LNG along with the identification of hazards that may arise during emergency incidents involving it. The article is based on an analysis of the available literature and a full-scale experimental study involving a 200-liter LNG tank leading to a jet fire. Introduction: Safe use and proper transport of flammable and harmful substances, together with the analysis of the effects of threats, enable the reduction of the number of accidents and provide possible conditions for the evacuation of people and property in a hazard zone. The compilation and systematization of knowledge on the safe use of the environmentally friendly LNG fuel will allow for an increase in the scope of its use. It is consistent with the state’s sustainable development policy consisting in identifying threats or adjusting technical solutions that minimize losses in transport or industry. Methodology: There are many legal acts in the world regarding safe storage and transport of LNG. One of the most important is Directive 2012/18/EC known as “Seveso III”. This document contains requirements for the prevention of major accidents involving hazardous substances – including LNG – and ways to reduce their negative effects on human health and the environment. Relevant requirements have also been specified in standards, tests, articles and other international acts, including in the European agreement on the international carriage of dangerous goods by road (the so-called ADR Agreement). The article compares flammable and explosive parameters of LNG. Possible scenarios occurring during the release and ignition of the LNG vapour cloud have been shown. The change of pressure of LNG vapour in the 200 l tank as a function of its heating time in the burning spill of a mixture of gasoline and diesel fuel is presented. In such a thermal exposure, a jet fire with a flame length of up to 5 meters was obtained. Conclusions: The proper use of flammable gases should be a priority in ensuring fire and explosion safety in facilities, during transport, etc. Hence, recognizing the threats and comparing them, or matching technical solutions that minimize the effects of LNG failures will allow active inclusion of knowledge in this field in the process of protection against fire and explosion. In case of LNG storage, attention should be paid to the types of materials in the immediate vicinity of this liquefied gas in order to have sufficient mechanical properties at the lowest liquefied gas temperature

Invasive disease caused by the encapsulated bacteria Neisseria meningitidis, Haemophilus influenzae and Streptococcus pneumoniae remains an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, despite the introduction of successful conjugate polysaccharide vaccines that target disease-associated strains. In addition, resistance, or more accurately reduced susceptibility, to therapeutic antibiotics is spreading in populations of these organisms. There is therefore a continuing requirement for the surveillance of vaccine and non-vaccine antigens and antibiotic susceptibilities among isolates from invasive disease, which is only partially met by conventional methods. This need can be met with molecular and especially nucleotide sequence-based typing methods, which are fully developed in the case of N. meningitidis and which could be more widely deployed in clinical laboratories for S. pneumoniae and H. influenzae.

Background: The increasing incidence of gonorrhea in Sweden in 1998 was due to mostly domestic cases. Among these, two core groups were identified: homosexual men with serovar IB-2 and young heterosexuals with serovar IB-3., Goals: To explore the genetic homogeneity/heterogeneity within the predominant serovars, IB-2 and IB-3, of Neisseria gonorrhoeae in Sweden by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) and to compare these results to epidemiologic information, as well as examine the genetic diversity within and between the 25 other represented serovars of N gonorrhoeae., Study Design: By PFGE, 237 N gonorrhoeae isolates were examined, and the results were compared with epidemiologic data for the IB-2 and IB-3 isolates., Results: In 79% of the domestic IB-2 cases involving homosexuals and 66% of the domestic IB-3 cases involving young heterosexuals, the isolates were genetically indistinguishable by PFGE. A high genetic diversity was identified within and between the 27 included serovars., Conclusions: Examination by means of PFGE indicated that one N gonorrhoeae clone each of the serovars IB-2 and IB-3 created the majority of the two core groups of domestic cases.