The most notable infectious disease outbreak in 2015 was the flu epidemic in the winter of 2014-2015, which at 21 weeks was the longest ever recorded in the Netherlands.

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).

COPD patients living near livestock farms suffer more complications.

Nicoline Tamsma has been elected to serve a new two-year term as EuroHealthNet president. EuroHealthNet is a European network organisation of public health and health promotion institutes.

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.

The German Federal Institute of Risk Assessment (BfR) and the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment, RIVM have signed a cooperation agreement, focused on developing new sci

Consumption of foods and food supplements that contain oil from microalgae Schizochytrium sp. and Krill oil do not cause harm to our health.

Insulin glargine is used in the treatment of diabetes.

Some foods contain less salt in 2014 compared with 2011. According to research by RIVM the salt content of bread was 21 percent lower in 2011.

On request of the Dutch food and product safety authority, RIVM has developed a prioritization method for substances used in textile production.