Study highlights sex differences in notified infectious disease cases across Europe

A study published in Eurosurveillance analysing 5.5 million cases of infectious diseases in the European Union/European Economic Area (EU/EEA) over 10 years has found important differences in the relative proportion of notified male versus female cases for several diseases. The proportion of males ranged on average from 40-45% for pertussis and Shiga toxin-producing Escherischia coli (STEC) infections to 75-80% for HIV/AIDS. “Although this study was not able to fully explain the differences observed across countries and diseases, it offers some interesting leads,” said Julien Beauté, principal expert in general surveillance at the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC) and co-author of the study. “Based on possible explanation(s) for these differences, public health professionals should further investigate whether this could apply to their setting to eventually design sex-specific interventions for infectious disease prevention and control.” Methodology Researchers conducted a retrospective analysis of surveillance data on cases reported between 2012 and 2021 for 16...