Przeglad epidemiologiczny最新文献

Objectives: The aim of this study is to assess the epidemiological situation of foodborne botulism in Poland in 2018-2021, compared to previous years.

Materials and methods: The assessment is based on an analysis of aggregated surveillance data from the annual bulletin "Infectious Diseases and Poisons in Poland" from 2013-2021, as well as botulism case reports collected by sanitary-epidemiological stations and sent to the Department of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases and Surveillance of the NIPH NIH - NRI or provided by EpiBase.

Results: A total of 54 foodborne botulism cases were registered between 2018 and 2021, including 31 (57.4%) cases of laboratory-confirmed botulism intoxication. Most cases (46 cases, 85.2%) were sporadic. The declining trend in the number of notifications continued throughout the time period, and the incidence recorded in 2021 (0.02 per 100,000 population) was the lowest since the introduction of mandatory reporting and registration of botulism in Poland. The highest median annual incidence was recorded in the Warmisko-Mazurskie (0.18), but many voivodeships reported only single notifications or none. The decreasing trend in rural areas relative to the level of incidence in urban areas continued. Men (incidence in men more than twice that of women) and people aged 50-59 predominated. All patients were hospitalized. According to the State Sanitary Inspection, there were 3 deaths (mortality of 5.6%).

Conclusions: In 2018-2021, the downward trend in the number of foodborne botulism notifications in Poland continued. At the same time, the considerable proportion of cases reported by physicians without laboratory confirmation and not meeting the definition of botulism adopted in other EU countries is noteworthy. The incidence in rural areas decreases to the level of incidence in urban areas, and the previously observed geographical distribution of cases diminishes.

Introduction: Oral health is an imperative to general health. It is important in many aspects of child development, as poor oral health can lead to problems with nutrition, speech development and self-esteem. Children living in orphanage are considered vulnerable to oral diseases.

Objective: To identify and compare the caries experience of children between the ages of 6 and 15 living in orphanages with children attending school in the city of Indore.

Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted among 6-15 years aged orphanage children and children studying in schools located in the same geographical area of the Indore city. A total of 200 children in each group were taken under the study. The data collected were oral hygiene practice and dentition status on WHO form 2013 for adults. The data was then analysed to determine mean DMFT and deft score.

Results: A statistically significant (p=0.001) difference in mean DMFT between orphans and non-orphans was observed. The decayed and missing component shows a statistically significant (p=0.001) difference between the orphans and non-orphans. For the primary dentition, the results show that the mean deft of orphans (0.28±0.84) was significantly higher (p=0.001) than non-orphans.

Conclusions: Based on the results of the present study, it can be concluded that the dental caries experience of orphans living in government-funded orphanage homes was found to be better than non-orphans studying in government school.

Tick-borne encephalitis (TBE) is a central nervous system zoonotic disease transmitted by ticks. Tick-borne encephalitis virus (TBEV) is one of the main causes of lymphocytic meningitis in the areas of its endemic occurrence. A mode of transmission of TBEV which is rarely observed in clinical practice is an alimentary transmission through consumption of unpasteurised dairy products from infected animals. The following article contains detailed description of the clinical course of TBE among five family members, for whom the occurrence of TBE was temporarily associated with the consumption of unpasteurised goat's milk from the same source. The epidemiological outbreak presented in this article is the fifth ever described case of the milk-borne TBE in Poland. More so, the clinical course of the disease has shown differences from the typical course characterised so far in the literature. Clinical cases of TBE described in this study were similar to infections caused by tick bites in humans. The following article discusses available methods of preventing TBE, with emphasis on alimentary transmission of TBEV, since possibility of serious detrimental long-term neurological complications resulting from TBE was stressed in prior literature.

Background: In 2021, the COVID-19 pandemic continued, however, due to the implementation of vaccination, fewer disruptions were observed in healthcare. In the detection of HCV - inextricably linked to access to testing - there was an incomplete return to the pre-pandemic level of diagnostics (in the EU/EEA in 2021, 4.1 infections/100,000, in 2019 - 8.8). The aim of the article was to present the HCV situation in 2021 according to the data of the epidemiological surveillance in Poland compared to 2015-2020.

Material and methods: We used the data: 1) from individual epidemiological surveillance; 2) from bulletins for the years 2015-2021 (diagnosis rates) and 3) regarding deaths from the Statistics Poland, Demographic Surveys and Labour Market Department.

Results: In 2021, a 30% increase in the detection of new HCV infections was observed (3.26/100,000, 1,244 cases) - about 70%, more than 2,500 cases, are missing to return to the pre-pandemic level. The demographic distribution was different than in Europe: 1) the ratio of women to men 1:1.07; 2) people <25 years: 2.4% of all diagnoses - this may imply worse access to testing among men than women (tested during pregnancy), especially in younger age groups. In Poland, a large percentage of diagnoses involves people outside the high- risk population - mainly exposures related to medical procedures (>75%). The role of primary health care in diagnosing HCV has strengthened (38.6%) - despite the fact that the tests were not yet available within health insurance benefits. The burden on healthcare and sanitary inspection continued to reduce the quality of data. There were more deaths due to acute hepatitis C in 2020-2021 (4 and 6 cases) compared to 2018 2019 (0 and 1 death).

Conclusions: The highlighted gaps in diagnosing HCV infections in Poland should be taken into consideration while developing the policy for HCV infections elimination. Poland still lacks in long term solutions, acceptable by and reaching the target population.

Introduction: Lyme disease, a zoonosis transmitted by vector (by ticks), may manifest itself in several different forms, such as: erythema migrans, osteoarticular or neuroborreliosis. Infection occurs when an infected common tick (Ixodes ricinus) feeds. Lyme disease is seasonal due to the cycle of tick activity throughout the year.

Aim of the study: The aim of the study was to assess the epidemiological situation of Lyme disease in Poland in 2021 compared to the situation in previous years.

Material and methods: To assess the epidemiological situation of Lyme disease in Poland, data sent to NIPH NIH - NRI by the Voivodeship Sanitary-Epidemiological Stations and published in the annual bulletin: "Infectious diseases and poisonings in Poland in 2021" were used.

Results: In 2021, 12,500 cases of Lyme disease and 411 hospitalizations were registered, which means a decrease in the number of cases by 3.4% and a decrease in hospitalizations by 10.5%. The number of cases was similar to 2020, and Lyme disease cases did not return to the pre-COVID-19 pandemic level (approx. 20,000 cases per year). The quarterly distribution of cases remained unchanged, with cases occurring most frequently in Q3 and least frequently in Q1.

Summary and conclusions: The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the number of reported Lyme disease cases was still noticeable, the number of recorded cases was lower than in the first pandemic year. The distribution of cases in quarters retained the seasonality characteristic of Lyme disease.

Introduction: In addition to many diagnostic and therapeutic procedures, the COVID-19 pandemic also limited prophylaxis, including the implementation of the vaccination program among children.

Objective: The aim of the study was to assess the implementation of the vaccination program in the area covered by the care of patients of a selected Primary Health Care clinic in the city of Krakow in the field of selected vaccinations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Material and methods: A retrospective study based on secondary data was conducted in a selected clinic (Kraków, Poland) that cares for 1,982 children aged 0-19 years. An analysis of the vaccination coverage in selected groups of children in 2019, 2020 and 2021 was carried out based on annual reports (MZ-54). Vaccination coverage against: diphtheria, tetanus, whooping cough, measles, mumps, rubella, influenza and pneumococcal infection was analyzed. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi2 test and Fisher's exact test.

Results: In the general vaccination status of two-year-olds, no significant differences were observed in the period 2019-2021 (p=0.156). The percentage of fully vaccinated increased from 77.6% in 2019, to 81.5% in 2020 and to 85.2% in 2021. However, a high rate of vaccination refusals was observed in 2021 (4.1%) in this group. The percentage of 2-year-olds vaccinated against pneumococci (PCV) and 3-year-olds against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis (DTP), and measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) in the years 2019-2021 was increasing. For DTP and MMR, this increase was significant (p<0.05). In the group of older children, in 2020 the percentage of 7- and 15-year-olds vaccinated decreased compared to 2019 and 2021, but the difference was insignificant (p>0.05). A significant difference in vaccination coverage was observed in the group of 19-year-olds, in which in 2020 the percentage of vaccinated was 58% (in 2019 - 74.6%, in 2021 - 81%). The largest number of children under the age of 5 were vaccinated against influenza in 2021, but it was only less than 2% of this group.

Conclusions: Sanitary restrictions introduced during the COVID-19 pandemic did not significantly affect the vaccination status of children in selected age groups against the analyzed vaccine-preventable diseases. The exception is the group of 19-year-olds, whose vaccination coverage in 2020 was much lower than in 2019 and 2021. In addition, an increase in refusals of vaccination was observed, reaching 4.1% in 2021 in the group of the youngest patients.

Introduction: Babesiosis is caused by one of several Babesia species. In Europe, B. divergens predominates in humans, while in North America it is B. microti. Babesia spp. infection in donors with a disease-free course of infection can be a major problem in blood recipients. A recipient with impaired immune system functions is at risk of full-blown development of the disease. In Poland and in most countries of the world, blood donors are not routinely tested for Babesia spp. infection. In our previous study, we detected Babesia venatorum DNA in blood donors, which was the reason for expanding the study to include more test subjects.

Objective: The aim of this study was an attempt at estimating the prevalence of asymptomatic infection with Babesia spp. among blood donors from the Regional Centres for Blood Donation and Blood Treatment in Warsaw and Wrocław.

Materials and methods: The material for the study was whole blood from regular blood donors from two Regional Centre for Blood Donation and Blood Treatment in Warsaw and Wrocław. Whole blood samples from 1,067 blood donors collected in June-July 2022 were analyzed. Blood collected directly from the donor during the blood donation procedure. All persons qualified by a doctor as a donor were selected for the study, regardless of age and sex. All subjects were informed in detail about the purpose of the study and gave their written consent. Isolation was made by using the Chelex 100 chelating resin, followed by the studying of the genetic material using the qPCR reaction. The results were analysed based on the amplification curve.

Results: The protozoan Babesia spp. was not detected in the blood samples.

Conclusions: The risk of blood-borne babesiosis is extremely low in Poland.

Aim of the study: The purpose of the study was the microbiological analysis of bloodstream infections in patients hospitalized at the National Institute of Oncology, Maria Skłodowska-Curie - National Research Institute in the period from 01/01/2020 to 31/10/2022.

Material and methods: In the period from 01/01/2020 to 31/10/2022, 18,420 blood cultures obtained from patients hospitalized at the NIO-PIB were analysed in the Department of Clinical Microbiology (total for the presence of bacteria and fungi). Culture for the presence of bacteria was carried out in the BactAlert automatic system by bioMerieux, and for fungi in the Bactec FX automatic system by Becton Dickinson.

Results: 1,184 strains of bacteria and 32 strains of fungi considered to be the etiological factor of the infection were cultured from clinical samples. Gram-positive bacteria accounted for 61.57%, while Gram-negative bacteria accounted for 32.26% of all isolated bacterial strains. The most frequently cultured strains were Escherichia coli - 13.77% (including 22.1% of ESBL strains), Klebsiella penumoniae - 4.6% (44.4% of ESBL strains, 1.85% of NDM strains), Enterobacter cloacae - 2 .7% (including 40.6% of multi-resistant strains: ESBL (15.6%) or with AmpC derepression (25%), among the non-fermenting bacilli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa was the most frequently cultured - 4.18% (including 3.8% MBL) and Acinetobacter baumannii - 0.8% (including CRAB strains 50%, MBL 10%). Anaerobic microorganisms were responsible for 3.46% of blood infection cases. Yeast- like fungi were a factor in 2.7% of all fungemia cases. From blood samples taken Staphylococci were more frequently isolated directly from a vein or through a central venous catheter than aerobic Gram-negative bacilli (44.7% and 25.3% and 55.6% and 12.5%, respectively). The opposite situation occurred in the case of samples taken simultaneously directly from vein and through a central venous catheter, in which a higher share of aerobic Gram-negative bacilli (46.6%) than staphylococci (32.8%) in causing blood infections was observed.

Conclusions: Gram-positive bacteria are the major contributors to bloodstream infections in cancer patients. There is a growing tendency to develop BSI caused by multi-resistant strains.

Background and objectives: Patients with AIDS face many problems, including problems related to treatment, social and family exclusion, high treatment costs, and drug complications, which affect the quality of life of these patients and change it. The aim was to determine the effect of the application of Peplau's theory of interpersonal communication on the quality of life of patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome.

Material and method: This quasi-experimental study was performed on 50 AIDS patients referred to Shahrekord Behavioral Diseases Counseling Center. Simple random sampling was performed and then the sample was assigned to two groups experimental and control. The theory of therapeutic communication of Peplau on patients in the experimental group was performed individually and immediately after the intervention and three months later the quality of life questionnaire was completed in both groups. In this research, the data collection tool includes a demographic information questionnaire and a WHOQOL-BREF. The WHOQOLBREF questionnaire measures the four domains of physical health, mental health, social relationships, and environmental health with 24 questions. The chi-square or Fisher's exact test, independent T-test and analysis of variance with repeated measurements were used to compare the quality of life of patients.

Results: Data analysis showed no statistically significant difference in the mean score of quality of life between the experimental and control groups before the implementation of Peplau's interpersonal communication theory (p=0.927). But after the intervention, there was a statistically significant difference in the mean score of quality of life between the two groups (p < 0.001).

Conclusion: Findings of the study show the positive effects of using Peplau's therapeutic communication model on quality of life. Therefore, this method is recommended as an effective and cost-effective care model for all patients referred to the Shahrekord Behavioral Diseases Counseling Center.