The Scottish Environmental Incident Surveillance System (SEISS) is a national level knowledge management system, designed to provide information on a wide range of environmental incidents. The aim is to create a source of information that agencies can interrogate, in order to discover who else has had to manage incidents, what information was helpful in managing incidents and what lessons were learned.

The SEISS database holds details of incidents reported by participating agencies involving a risk to public health in Scotland, due to the release into the environment of chemical, microbiological, radiation, or other physical agents.

SEISS is currently the only web based system that enables the reporting of environmental incidents across all of Scotland, and the annual report for 2020 provides a summary of the incidents that have occurred in Scotland during the past year.

Travel restrictions and self-isolation (quarantine) rules have been implemented across the UK since the start of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020, in order to reduce the spread of COVID-19 and protect the health of the public. The range and type of measures vary across Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

The current UK travel restrictions are stringent and in place to avoid new variants being imported into the UK, and to avoid UK travellers exporting the UK variant during international travel.

Prior to travelling to the UK, all travellers must: 

• take a coronavirus (COVID-19) test and get a negative result during the three days before travel to the UK 
• book an accommodation and testing package through the UK Government portal 
• complete a Passenger Locator Form (PLF) declaring which countries have been visited in the ten days prior to arriving in the UK

All travellers arriving into the UK must: 

• quarantine for ten days 
• take coronavirus (COVID-19) tests on days two and eight of quarantine 
• follow the national lockdown rules for the UK four-nations country they arrive in 
• for travellers arriving from, or that have been in a red list country where travel to the UK has been banned in the last ten days, quarantine must take place in managed hotel accommodation

Quarantine rules differ for Scotland, England, Wales and Northern Ireland, therefore prior to travel, travellers must ensure they are able to comply with the rules appropriate to the UK nation they will be arriving in and reside in, if different.

Country specific COVID-19 risk

The fitfortravel (for the general public) and TRAVAX (for health professionals) country pages have been updated to include a COVID-19 country specific risk-rating, with every country being identified as high, moderate or low risk and each rating accompanied by appropriate travel advice. This information will be listed in the ‘Alerts’ section on each country page of fitfortravel and the 'Emerging Health Risks' section of every TRAVAX country page. This risk-rating is based on a robust public health assessment of the COVID-19 risks for travellers to each country and is regularly reviewed.

Advice for travellers

It is advised that travellers are aware of all travel restrictions, self-isolation rules and precautions they should take, in order to reduce their risk of exposure to coronavirus (COVID-19) before, during and after travel, as detailed on the fitfortravel website.

Source: TRAVAX, 1 April 2021

World Immunisation Week runs from 24 to 30 April 2021, promoting the use of immunisations to protect people of all ages against disease. The theme this year is ‘Vaccines bring us closer’, a message that aims to build worldwide trust in vaccinations, in order to save lives and protect the health and wellbeing of all.

As the world currently focuses on new vaccines to protect against COVID-19, the campaign highlights the importance of ensuring routine vaccinations are not missed. Many children have not been vaccinated during the global pandemic, leaving them at risk of diseases such as measles and polio. As part of World Immunization Week 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO), their partners and individuals around the world are uniting to: 

• increase trust and confidence in vaccines to maintain or increase vaccine acceptance 
• increase investment in vaccines, including routine immunisation, and remove the barriers preventing people from accessing them

In addition, the WHO European Region will celebrate European Immunisation Week, which as in previous years overlaps World Immunisation Week, running this year from 26 April to 2 May. The theme of European Immunisation Week also reflects that of World Immunisation Week, with the focus being on COVID-19 vaccines and vaccination.

Further information on World Immunisation Week and European Immunisation Week can be found on their respective WHO websites, while the @publichealthscotland Instagram account and the @NHSImmuniseScot Twitter account can be followed to keep up-to-date with the European Immunisation Week campaign in Scotland.

Information for health professionals about vaccination practice can be found on the TRAVAX website.

Source: TRAVAX, 21 April 2021

The World Health Organization (WHO) has reported that, two years after the launch of a pilot programme, more than 1.7 million doses of the world’s first malaria vaccine have been administered in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, giving more than 650,000 children additional malaria protection.

The number of children reached in this relatively short period indicates strong community demand for the vaccine, as well as the capacity of the countries’ child immunization programmes to deliver the vaccine on a novel schedule (four doses up to approximately the age of two years). At a time when global progress in malaria control has stalled, the protection provided by the RTS,S malaria vaccine, when added to currently recommended malaria control interventions, has the potential to save tens of thousands of lives per year.

RTS,S is the only vaccine that has been shown to reduce malaria in children, including life-threatening severe malaria, related hospital admissions and the need for blood transfusions. The vaccine is being piloted in areas of moderate-to-high malaria transmission, where malaria can account for up to 60% of childhood outpatient visits to health facilities.

Source: WHO, 20 April 2021

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) has published 2019 annual epidemiological reports for: 

• malaria – 8,641 cases were reported in the EU and EEA, of which 8,638 were confirmed. Among the 5,509 cases with known importation status, 99.8% were travel-related. Nine confirmed cases were reported as acquired in the EU, two each in Germany, Greece, Spain and France, and one in the Netherlands. 
• hantavirus infection – 29 EU and EEA countries reported 4,046 cases, the notification rate being 0.8 per 100,000 of the population. In total, 98% of cases were caused by Puumala virus. Finland and Germany accounted for 69% of all reported cases.

Sources: ECDC, 22 April 2021 and ECDC, 22 April 2021

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) periodically publishes influenza characterisation reports, giving an overview of circulating influenza viruses. These reports provide details on current vaccine strains, summarise the development of viruses since the last report and closely follow the main developments for the ongoing influenza season.

On 21 April 2021, the ECDC published the fifth virus characterisation period report for the 2020 to 2021 influenza season. As of week 12 of 2021, 758 influenza detections across the World Health Organization (WHO) European Region had been reported, of which 50% were type A viruses, with A(H3N2) and A(H1N1)pdm09 being equally represented, and 50% were type B viruses, with 12 having been ascribed to a lineage, ten being B/Victoria and two B/Yamagata. These figures represent a 99.5% drop in detections compared with the same period in 2020.

Source: ECDC, 21 April 2021

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published new guidance to help food suppliers decide what information to give consumers about storing food, and time limits for consumption.

Once food packaging has been opened, bacteria can be transferred to food by contaminated hands, surfaces, or equipment. Setting a time limit for consumption can be complex, but the tool developed by the EFSA aims to assist food suppliers in deciding whether it is appropriate to give consumers other instructions in addition to use by or best before dates.

Source: EFSA, 22 April 2021

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work (EU-OSHA) has published a revamped toolkit, providing step-by step guidance on running an awareness campaign on occupational health and safety. It features planning tips, branding advice, and recent examples of innovative campaigning from across Europe and beyond.

Source: EU-OSHA, 20 April 2021