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. 2019 Dec;24(49):1900681.
doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2019.24.49.1900681.

Outbreak of invasive pneumococcal disease among shipyard workers, Turku, Finland, May to November 2019

Marius Linkevicius  1   2 , Veronica Cristea  3   4 , Lotta Siira  1 , Henna Mäkelä  3 , Maija Toropainen  1 , Marjaana Pitkäpaasi  3 , Timothee Dub  3 , Hanna Nohynek  3 , Taneli Puumalainen  3 , Esa Rintala  5 , Merja E Laaksonen  5 , Thijs Feuth  6   7 , Juha O Grönroos  8 , Jutta Peltoniemi  9 , Heikki Frilander  10 , Irmeli Lindström  10 , Jussi Sane  3
Affiliations

Outbreak of invasive pneumococcal disease among shipyard workers, Turku, Finland, May to November 2019

Marius Linkevicius et al. Euro Surveill. 2019 Dec.

Abstract

We report an outbreak of invasive pneumococcal disease and pneumococcal pneumonia among shipyard workers, in Turku, Southwest Finland. In total, 31 confirmed and six probable cases were identified between 3 May and 28 November 2019. Streptococcus pneumoniae serotypes 12F, 4 and 8 were isolated from blood cultures of 25 cases. Occupational hygiene measures and vaccination of ca 4,000 workers are underway to control the outbreak at the shipyard.

Keywords: Finland; Invasive pneumococcal disease; Outbreak; Streptococcus pneumoniae; pneumococcus; shipyard.

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Conflict of interest statement

Conflict of interest: THL has received research funding from GlaxoSmithKline Vaccines for conducting a nationwide effectiveness trial of the 10-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, and from Pfizer, Inc. and Sanofi Pasteur, Inc. for non-pneumococcal research. LS and MT are co-investigators in one or more of these studies. The other authors have no conflicts to disclose. The current study was entirely publicly funded.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Timeline of invasive pneumococcal disease outbreak at a shipyard, Turku, Southwest Finland, May–November 2019
Figure 2
Figure 2
Confirmed and probable cases during an invasive pneumococcal disease outbreak at a shipyard by month of specimen collection and serotype, Turku, Southwest Finland, May–November 2019 (n = 37)
Figure 3
Figure 3
Minimum spanning tree of isolates from cases connected to an invasive pneumococcal disease outbreak at a shipyard, Turku, Southwest Finland, May–October 2019
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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