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Abstract During a national measles outbreak in 2018-2019, the Tel Aviv District suffered a major upsurge of cases, with 413 patients reported. Among them, 100 (24%) were under the age of one, 92 (22%) patients were aged 12 months to 4 years, 47 (11%) were 5-18 years, 169 (41%) were aged 19-60 years, 5 (1%) patients were older than 61 years (born before 1957). Among all cases, 230 (56%) were part of the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community, 55 (13%) were among undocumented African immigrants. Despite high vaccination coverage, sustained measles transmission occurred, owing in part to importations and numerous exposures in medical settings by a susceptible birth cohort. The Ultra-Orthodox Jewish community was particularly afflicted owing to its condense population, high birth rates and multiple exposures in crowded religious settings. This outbreak demonstrates the necessity of addressing immunity gaps as well optimal healthcare planning in order to prevent future outbreaks.

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This study analyses the epidemiologic, clinical and molecular findings of all culture-confirmed cases of listeriosis notified from 2010 to 2015 in the Tel Aviv District, which is known to have high rates of listeriosis. All clinical isolates of Listeria monocytogenes were subtyped using two-enzyme pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. During the studied period, 102 cases of listeriosis were notified, including 23 pregnancy-associated cases (23%). Among 79 non-pregnancy-associated cases, 18 had neuro-invasive disease (21%). There were 26 deaths associated with the disease. Using molecular identification, we found a number of clusters of identical bacterial clones, which pointed to possible sources of infection. The high rates of morbidity and mortality resulting from listeriosis, as well as the diverse ways of infection demonstrated in this study, accentuate the need to boost public health actions, in order to raise awareness and better control high-risk contamination routes.