Przeglad epidemiologiczny最新文献

Oral health plays a crucial role in obesity management. Scientific evidence suggests an association between obesity and oral diseases, including periodontal disease, dental caries, tooth erosion, xerostomia, and dentinal hypersensitivity. Maintaining optimal oral health is essential for obese patients, as compromised dentition or oral discomfort can influence dietary habits. However, managing oral health in obese individuals can be challenging due to anatomical limitations and lifestyle choices. Profound knowledge of obesity and its manifestations, the oral health professionals need to raise awareness and provide patients with comprehensive care. Pocrescophobia also known as obesophobia, is an intense fear of gaining weight. It affects both adoloscent women and men, manifesting as an irrational dread associated with weight gain. Like other phobias, obesophobia falls under the umbrella of anxiety disrders, leading to exaggerated anxiety when discussing or thinking about weight gain. Individuals with this fear may go to extreme lengths to avoid weight gain, which can increase the risk of developing eating disorders. Stress can lead to bruxism, wears away the occlusal surfaces and incisal edges, resulting in flat, shorter teeth. Smooth V-shaped cavities arise when lateral stresses surpass physiological limitations, resulting in gum recession and tooth discomfort. Canker sores, xerostomia, and lichen planus have all been linked to stress. By addressing both obesophobia and obesity as well as oral health, patients' overall well-being and quality of life can be improved.

Background: The war invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 led to mass migration. By January 3, 2023, nearly a million people sought refuge in Poland. The Polish Act on Assistance to Ukrainian Citizens provided comprehensive support, ensuring legal residence, free medical insurance, social benefits, and access to education and employment. Simultaneously, the global public health crisis persisted, with the fifth wave of the COVID-19 pandemic driven by the Omicron variant. The epidemic state in Poland was lifted on May, 2022.

Objective: This paper aims to summarize the epidemiological situation of HCV infections in Poland in 2022, a year characterized by dual crises.

Material and methods: Epidemiological surveillance case-based data on HCV for 2022, diagnosis rates from bulletins for the years 2014-2022, and the number of deaths for 2022 from Statistics Poland were compared with previous years' data.

Results: In 2022, the rate of new HCV diagnoses rose to 6.68 per 100,000, totaling 2,528 cases (a 46% increase from the previous year). Polish nationals accounted for 87% of cases. Gender distribution was equal. There was an overall increase in HCV diagnoses across all voivodeships, with a return to pre-pandemic trends observed only in Zachodniopomorskie. Diagnoses were predominantly made in primary healthcare (one-third) and during hospitalization (one-fourth). Twenty-six cases of acute hepatitis C (1%, PL definition) were identified. At diagnosis, 5.6% of infected showed signs of liver damage. Hepatitis C was responsible for 86 deaths. Imported infections accounted for 5.7% of cases. 2.7% of HCV infections in 2022 were diagnosed in refugees from Ukraine, mainly in women aged 40 to 59. All persons of Ukrainian nationality accounted for 10.4% of HCV cases detected in 2022.

Conclusions: Expanding the availability and accessibility of testing is essential, particularly addressing the needs of key populations, including non-Polish speakers. The strategy for HCV elimination should encompass comprehensive measures aimed at prevention, diagnosis, and treatment to effectively curb the virus's spread among subgroups and mitigate its long-term health impacts.

Introduction: Medical treatment of pediatric empyema consists of appropriate antibiotics, chest tube insertion, and intrapleural fibrinolytic drugs to facilitate pleural drainage. There is a lack of consensus about the drug of choice for fibrinolytic therapy, so this study was designed to evaluate the safety and efficacy of intrapleural alteplase in pediatric empyema.

Material and methods: The medical records of all children with empyema treated with intrapleural alteplase at a university hospital between January 2016 and December 2020 were retrospectively reviewed. Efficacy outcomes were assessed by chest tube output before and after the first dose of alteplase, pleural fluid volume before and after therapy, a need for surgical intervention, and length of hospital stay. Safety was assessed by the frequency and severity of side effects.

Results: 40 children aged 2 months to 9 years hospitalized with empyema received intrapleural alteplase. Thirty patients (75%) experienced full recovery after three doses of intrapleural alteplase. The median length of hospital stay was 16 days. Chest tube output increased significantly after the first dose of alteplase. Pleural fluid volume decreased significantly after treatment. The most common side effect was pain (30%). Two patients experienced severe complications: 1 had a pulmonary hemorrhage and the other experienced a bronchopleural fistula. These patients recovered fully spontaneously.

Conclusions: According to our results, the administration of intrapleural alteplase was safe and effective in facilitating pleural drainage in pediatric patients with empyema. However, further clinical trials will be needed to determine the optimal dose, frequency, and duration of intrapleural alteplase treatment.

Infectious skin diseases constitute a significant public health problem. Despite the systematic development of many modern diagnostic and therapeutic tools, they still pose a serious challenge for clinicians. Due to their prevalence and mild course in most cases, they are often marginalized, which can delay their diagnosis and treatment initiation. Such an approach in more clinically advanced cases can have serious consequences, sometimes leading to tragic outcomes. This work presents a series of four cases of common infectious skin diseases with an unusually atypical clinical picture: the history of a 49-year-old female patient with recurrent erysipelas of the right lower leg co-occurring with a SARS-CoV-2 infection, a 75-year-old male patient with a generalized form of herpes zoster, a 38-year-old female patient with a complicated severe course of head lice, and a 34-year-old male patient with a severe form of post-steroid mycosis. In each of these cases, difficulties in making the correct diagnosis were highlighted, even though they represent some of the most common bacterial, viral, parasitic, and fungal dermatoses. The paper discusses the risk factors for these diseases, the pathophysiology of their atypical course, the effects and challenges in the therapeutic approach conducted. Infectious skin dermatoses require aggressive treatment and should never be underestimated.

Introduction: Respiratory tract infections in children are an interdisciplinary problem that pediatricians, allergists, laryngologists and immunologists encounter on a daily basis. In the youngest children, these diseases are caused by the structure of the respiratory tract, which is shorter and narrower than in an adult, as well as the immaturity of the immune system. Among all children under 5 years of age hospitalized due to respiratory diseases, 20% of cases are acute respiratory infections.

Objective: The aim of the study is to discuss selected respiratory diseases in children aged 0-18 years hospitalized at the Pediatric Hospital in Bielsko-Biała.

Material and methods: In June 2023, statistical data from the Pediatric Hospital was received regarding the number of hospitalized children aged 0-18 in 2015-2022. This article covers the following respiratory diseases: acute laryngitis, acute pharyngitis, pneumonia, bronchitis and bronchiolitis, bronchial asthma, adenoid hypertrophy and palatine tonsil hypertrophy coexisting with adenoid hypertrophy. Then, a table was prepared illustrating the trends of individual disease entities in the discussed time period.

Results: A total of 5,573 hospitalizations were analyzed for the period from 2015-2022. The largest group of children (1,583) were hospitalized due to acute bronchitis and bronchiolitis (28.41%), due to hypertrophy of the adenoid (1,093) and palatine tonsils (1,039), which is 19.6% and 18.64% respectively. The smallest number of children and adolescents were hospitalized due to acute laryngotracheitis (474) and pharyngitis (361), which is 8.51% and 6.47%, respectively, and due to asthma (54), which is 0.97%. It has been observed that from 2017 to 2022 the number of hospitalized patients is constantly increasing due to acute pharyngitis and pneumonia, and from 2018 to 2022 due to acute laryngotracheitis.

Conclusions: In the analyzed Pediatric Hospital in Bielsko-Biała, the number of hospitalized children (from 0 to 18 years of age) due to pharyngitis, laryngotracheitis and pneumonia increased during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2022). The number of hospitalized patients due to pneumonia increased by as many as 70 from 2021 (197) to 2022 (267). In the case of hospitalizations for pharyngitis during the COVID-19 period, the number ranged from 46 in 2019 to 69 in 2022. Also in the case of acute laryngotracheitis in the period 2019-2022, the number of hospitalized young patients increases and ranges from 61 to 76. Respiratory tract infections are an important and common health problem for children. The vast majority of respiratory infections are caused by viruses.