First patient infected by tick-borne encephalitis virus 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).
Need for circular use of materials in construction Construction and demolition waste are being recycled on a large scale to use as a foundation for e.g. roads, but recycled building materials are hardly ever used in the construction of buildings.
Nanotechnology increasingly used in medical devices The application of nanotechnology to design and produce medical devices is increasing. RIVM provides an overview of nanotechnology enabled medical devices.
Flu season in the winter of 2014 / 2015 more severe and longer than preceding years The flu epidemic in the winter of 2014 / 2015 lasted 21 weeks and as such was the longest epidemic ever recorded in the Netherlands. Nearly two million people suffered from flu-like symptoms.