RIVM proposes water quality standards for perfluoro octanoic acid (PFOA). PFOA is a man-made chemical that is used to protect surfaces.

The societal costs of Lyme disease have been determined for the Netherlands for the first time. The disease appears to cost nearly EUR 20 million each year.

One in 5 tick bites occurs in an urban area. Although most tick bites occur in the countryside, many people are bitten in urban areas as well.

For the first time, a person in the Netherlands has fallen ill after a bite from a tick carrying the tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBE virus).

Antimicrobial resistance is a global problem. In the Netherlands, some bacteria that can cause infections in people are more frequently resistant to antibiotics used as a last resort.

Wednesday, 18 November is European Antibiotic Awareness Day. On this day, attention throughout Europe is requested for the responsible use of antibiotics in people and animals.

The World Health Organization (WHO) published its first CAESAR annual report 2014.

Over recent years, antibiotic resistance to most agents has remained stable in the Netherlands, and the use of antibiotics has slightly decreased.

At the start of the “Tick Awareness Week”, the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) and Wageningen UR are commencing a large-scale study on the long-term effects of

AMR is one of the major global challenges in infectious disease control.