Epidemiological and molecular approaches for management of a measles outbreak in Liguria, Italy

Since March 2010 a measles outbreak has been occurred in Genoa, Liguria, an administrative Region in Northern Italy. Epi-demiological and molecular data on the outbreak, obtained from the passive mandatory notification system, the laboratory sur-veillance and an innovative syndrome surveillance system, were investigated. Overall 39 cases were reported in the urban area. Information about demography, vaccination status, hospitaliza-tion and geographic distribution of measles cases are available. 19 cases (48.7%) were laboratory-confirmed and were charac-terized by sequence analysis: 18 strains belonged to genotype D8, so identifying a new measles variant within the Liguria population. Adopted control measures seem to have limited viral circulation. The outbreak allowed to test the efficacy of the 3 sur-veillance systems active in Liguria, highlighting their advantages and some important limitations. More efforts are needed to col-lect and integrate any epidemiological and virological available data in order to better describe the local measles transmission dynamics.