The burden of infectious intestinal disease (IID) in the community: a survey of self-reported IID in The Netherlands

In 2009, a 1-year retrospective survey was performed in The Netherlands to estimate the incidence and the disease burden of infectious intestinal disease (IID) in the community, to study the selection of patients consulting a general practitioner and to identify potential risk factors for IID in the community. A questionnaire was sent to 6000 persons selected at random from the population registries of 28 municipalities, with 500 persons being approached per month. A total of 1975 (33%) persons participated. The incidence rate of IID was 964/1000 person-years. Potential risk factors associated with IID in the community were young age (0-4 years) [odds ratio (OR) 3.9, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.5-10.5], having asthma as a child (OR 3.4, 95% CI 1.1-10.3) and use of gastric acid suppressive medication by persons aged ≥ 45 years (OR 2.8, 95% CI 1.4-5.6). Of the 146 cases with IID, 11 (8%) consulted a physician. Cases with a long duration of symptoms, blood in the stool, children with IID and cases with a low level of education were more likely to consult a physician. Two cases had a stool sample taken and one was admitted to hospital. In conclusion, IID is common and has a significant burden of illness in The Netherlands. Our data indicate that about 15.9 million episodes of IID occur in The Netherlands per year. The incidence rate is substantially higher than the rate of 283/1000 person-years as estimated in 1999 in The Netherlands. This is probably largely due to the retrospective nature of the present study and, to a lesser extent, to differences in case definitions.     

The burden of infectious disease in New Zealand

New Zealand mortality records for the years 1980 to 1993 were analysed to estimate the aggregate burden of infectious disease using a recoding of ICD-9 codes to identify deaths with infectious aetiology. The recoding scheme was modified from one developed by US CDC, which used expert panels to assign ICD codes to categories dependent on the proportion of the code attributable to infection. ICD-9 Chapter One ('Infectious and parasitic diseases') accounted for only 0.7% of total deaths. Following recoding, this proportion increased tenfold, with 6.9% of deaths attributable to infectious disease. This proportion was stable or declined only slowly between 1980 and 1993. While rates varied by age, gender and ethnicity, the results indicate that infectious disease still accounts for a substantial proportion of the burden of disease in New Zealand.     

Estimating the burden of serogroup C meningococcal disease in England and Wales

In 1999 a new conjugate vaccine for serogroup C meningococcal disease was licensed for use in the UK. In order for an appropriate vaccination strategy to be developed the burden of serogroup C disease in England and Wales needed to be established. This was done using data from an enhanced surveillance scheme alongside routine laboratory reports and a total of 5,052 cases of serogroup C disease in England and Wales between 1993 and 1998 were estimated. Among these, an estimated 398 died and 1,767 were admitted to intensive care units (ITUs). The greatest burden of disease was in young children and teenagers. The current literature identified four studies reporting sequelae following serogroup C meningococcal disease. These provided estimates of sequelae in the range of 6.5% and 45% and presented some evidence of higher levels than occur following serogroup B meningococcal disease. This information was provided to the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation to inform policy to implement a serogroup C conjugate vaccination programme in the UK. The vaccination programme has since been justified by the dramatic reduction in serogroup C meningococcal cases.     

The cost and disease burden of pneumonia in general practice in Australia

It is important to have an understanding of the cost and disease burden of pneumonia in the community to help evaluate future prevention efforts. We examined general practitioner (GP) visits (and estimated the related costs) where pneumonia was managed from data collected in a continuous national survey, data period April 2006-March 2009. The majority of visits were standard length surgery consultations, with medication prescribed for 63%, imaging requested for 29%, and pathology for 10% of pneumonia problems managed. We estimated an average cost per GP visit of A$57.05 after adjusting for the number of problems managed. An annual average of 343,000 GP visits for pneumonia was estimated in Australia at cost of ∼A$20 million per year.     

Estimating the burden of illness in an Ontario community with untreated drinking water and sewage disposal problems

The Hamilton-Wentworth regional health department was asked by one of its municipalities to determine whether the present water supply and sewage disposal methods used in a community without piped water and regional sewage disposal posed a threat to the health of its residents. Three approaches were used: assessments by public health inspectors of all households; bacteriological and chemical analyses of water samples; and completion of a specially designed questionnaire by residents in the target community and a control community. 89% of the 227 residences in the target community were found to have a drinking water supply that, according to the Ministry of Environment guidelines, was unsafe and/or unsatisfactory. According to on-site inspections, 32% of households had sewage disposal problems. Responses to the questionnaire revealed that the target community residents reported more symptoms associated with enteric infections due to the water supply. Two of these symptoms, diarrhea and stomach cramps, had a relative risk of 2.2 when compared to the control community (p less than 0.05). The study was successfully used by the municipality to argue for provincial funding of piped water.     

西宁市肠道传染病发病态势分析

目的 了解西宁市肠道传染病流行状况和发病特征,同时掌握其分布规律和流行趋势,探讨肠道传染病的预警,以及预防控制策略.方法 依据《疾病监测信息报告管理系统》收集西宁市2005～2011年肠道传染病数据,用SPSS进行卡方检验等统计学分析.结果 西宁市肠道传染病各年份、不同人群间发病有差异;主要以其他感染性腹泻和细菌性痢疾为主,两者占总发病数的85.42％;除1～2月发病水平较低外,其他月份发病率均较高,7～10月份达到发病高峰;发病年龄以10岁以下儿童为主.结论 10岁以下散居儿童为肠道传染病的高危人群,肠道传染病的控制可以其他感染性腹泻和细菌性痢疾为主进行相关性预防控制,托幼机构和小学是防控的重点场所;改善环境卫生条件可以减少肠道传染病的发生.     

2014 - 2015年河南省居民急性胃肠炎流行病学负担研究

目的 掌握河南省居民急性胃肠炎的流行病学负担,为制定合理、有效的卫生政策提供科学依据。方法 选择周口市、郑州市、濮阳市作为监测点,2014年4月 - 2015年3月开展为期12个月的社区人群入户调查,询问调查对象过去4周的急性肠胃炎发病情况。结果 获得有效调查问卷共5 433份,河南省急性胃肠炎加权月患病率为1.23%,年发病率为0.13次/人年;就诊率为70.64%;住院率、病原检测率为零;85.33%的患者服用抗生素;66.74%的患者自诉曾食用过受污染食物。结论 河南省居民急性胃肠炎发病率低于全国平均水平,在就医过程中存在病原检测率过低和抗生素不规范使用的问题;为获取高质量的食源性疾病监测数据,应进一步建立健全食源性疾病监测体系。     

The study of infectious intestinal disease in England: risk factors for cases of infectious intestinal disease with Campylobacter jejuni infection.

This is a case-control study aimed at identifying risk factors for intestinal infection with Campylobacter jejuni. Cases were defined as subjects with diarrhoea occurring in community cohorts or presenting to General Practitioners (GPs) with Campylobacter jejuni in stools. Controls were selected from GP lists or cohorts, matched by age, sex, and GP practice. Travel abroad and consumption of chicken in a restaurant were statistically significantly associated with being a case. There was no statistically significant risk associated with consumption of chicken other than in restaurants nor with reported domestic kitchen hygiene practices. Consumption of some foods was associated with a lower risk of being a case. Most cases remained unexplained. We suggest that infection with low numbers of micro-organisms, and individual susceptibility may play a greater role in the causation of campylobacter infection than previously thought. It is possible that in mild, sporadic cases infection may result from cross contamination from kitchen hygiene practices usually regarded as acceptable. Chicken may be a less important vehicle of infection for sporadic cases than for outbreaks, although its role as a source of infection in both settings requires further clarification in particular in relation to the effect of domestic hygiene practices. The potential effect of diet in reducing the risk of campylobacteriosis requires exploration.     

济宁市2009-2016年肠道传染病流行状况及疾病负担分析

目的  对济宁市2009-2016年肠道传染病疾病负担进行分析,确定该地区的流行趋势和高危人群,为疾病防治提供依据。 方法  收集法定传染病上报系统济宁市2009-2016年肠道传染病资料,计算总体发病率、伤残生命年（years lived with disability,YLDs）和YLDs强度。 结果  2009-2016年济宁市肠道传染病年均发病率为128.81/10万,依次为其他感染性腹泻（74.74/10万）、手足口病（49.15/10万）、细菌性痢疾（3.65/10万）、戊型肝炎（0.57/10万）、急性出血性结膜炎（0.37/10万）和甲型肝炎（0.34/10万）。5~8月高发。总YLDs为593.04人年,男性372.31人年,女性220.73人年;依次为手足口病（326.88人年）、其他感染性腹泻（235.74人年）、戊型肝炎（10.65人年）、细菌性痢疾（10.09人年）、甲型肝炎（7.71人年）和急性出血性结膜炎（1.97人年）,对应YLDs强度为0.489、0.353、0.016、0.015、0.012和0.003人年/10万。 结论  2009-2016年济宁市肠道传染病以手足口病和其他感染性腹泻为主,夏季高发,学龄前儿童和老年人是高发人群。提示疾病防控部门可根据人群和季节发病特点,采取措施加以防控。     

Estimating the burden of foodborne diseases in Japan

ObjectiveTo assess the burden posed by foodborne diseases in Japan using methods developed by the World Health Organization’s Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG).MethodsExpert consultation and statistics on food poisoning during 2011 were used to identify three common causes of foodborne disease in Japan: Campylobacter and Salmonella species and enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC). We conducted systematic reviews of English and Japanese literature on the complications caused by these pathogens, by searching Embase, the Japan medical society abstract database and Medline. We estimated the annual incidence of acute gastroenteritis from reported surveillance data, based on estimated probabilities that an affected person would visit a physician and have gastroenteritis confirmed. We then calculated disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) lost in 2011, using the incidence estimates along with disability weights derived from published studies.FindingsIn 2011, foodborne disease caused by Campylobacter species, Salmonella species and EHEC led to an estimated loss of 6099, 3145 and 463 DALYs in Japan, respectively. These estimated burdens are based on the pyramid reconstruction method; are largely due to morbidity rather than mortality; and are much higher than those indicated by routine surveillance data.ConclusionRoutine surveillance data may indicate foodborne disease burdens that are much lower than the true values. Most of the burden posed by foodborne disease in Japan comes from secondary complications. The tools developed by FERG appear useful in estimating disease burdens and setting priorities in the field of food safety.     

Estimating distributions of health state severity for the global burden of disease study

Background

Many major causes of disability in the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) study present with a range of severity, and for most causes finding population distributions of severity can be difficult due to issues of sparse data, inconsistent measurement, and need to account for comorbidities. We developed an indirect approach to obtain severity distributions empirically from survey data.

Methods

Individual-level data were used from three large population surveys from the US and Australia that included self-reported prevalence of major diseases and injuries as well as generic health status assessments using the 12-Item Short Form Health Survey (SF-12). We developed a mapping function from SF-12 scores to GBD disability weights. Mapped scores for each individual respondent were regressed against the reported diseases and injuries using a mixed-effects model with a logit-transformed response variable. The regression outputs were used to predict comorbidity-corrected health-state weights for the group of individuals with each condition. The distribution of these comorbidity-corrected weights were used to estimate the fraction of individuals with each condition falling into different GBD severity categories, including asymptomatic (implying disability weight of zero).

Results

After correcting for comorbid conditions, all causes analyzed had some proportion of the population in the asymptomatic category. For less severe conditions, such as alopecia areata, we estimated that 44.1 % [95 % CI: 38.7 %-49.4 %] were asymptomatic while 28.3 % [26.8 %-29.6 %] of anxiety disorders had asymptomatic cases. For 152 conditions, full distributions of severity were estimated. For anxiety disorders for example, we estimated the mean population proportions in the mild, moderate, and severe states to be 40.9 %, 18.5 %, and 12.3 % respectively. Thirty-seven of the analyzed conditions were used in the GBD 2013 estimates and are reported here.

Conclusion

There is large heterogeneity in the disabling severity of conditions among individuals. The GBD 2013 approach allows explicit accounting for this heterogeneity in GBD estimates. Existing survey data that have collected health status together with information on the presence of a series of comorbid conditions can be used to fill critical gaps in the information on condition severity while correcting for effects of comorbidity. Our ability to make these estimates may be limited by lack of geographic variation in the data and by the current methodology for disability weights, which implies that severity must be binned rather than expressed in as a full distribution. Future country-specific data collection efforts will be needed to advance this research.

     

A pilot study of infectious intestinal disease in England.

Pilot studies to test methods to determine the incidence, agents, risk factors and socioeconomic costs of infectious intestinal disease (IID) in England were carried out as recommended by the Committee on the Microbiological Safety of Food (the Richmond Committee) by eight general practices. There were case control and enumeration studies of patients presenting to general practice with IID, a population-based prospective cohort study, and a survey of socioeconomic costs of cases of IID. Information on risk factors was obtained by questionnaire (self-administered compared with interview) and a stool sample was requested on all cases and controls. Response rates in the GP case control study were 75% for case questionnaires and 74% for stools; for controls the figures were 70% and 68% respectively. The acceptance rate into the cohort study was 49%; this was significantly higher where phone contact was made. The rate was similar if recruitment was by individual or household. Follow-up of the cohort by negative reporting was complete for up to 6 months. Direct postage by subject was required to obtain fresh stool specimens. Estimates were obtained of presentation rates of IID and the distribution of risk factors which were used to plan the main study. The pilot study demonstrated that it is possible to undertake a national study based in general practice to determine the incidence of IID in the population and presenting to GPs and its agents, risk factors and costs.     

Evaluating rotavirus vaccination in England and Wales. Part I. Estimating the burden of disease

Rotavirus is a major cause of gastroenteritis in young children. New vaccines for rotavirus are now available and countries need to establish the health and economic burden of rotavirus disease to assess whether vaccine introduction is advisable. This study assesses the fraction of acute gastroenteritis in children under 5 years that may be attributable to rotavirus using multiple linear regression. Results suggest around 45% of hospitalisations, 25% of GP consultations, 27% of NHS Direct calls and 20% of accident and emergency (A&E) attendances for acute gastroenteritis in this age group may be attributable to rotavirus. The annual incidence is estimated to be 4.5 hospitalisations, 9.3 A&E consultations, and 28-44 GP consultations per 1000 children under five years of age. The cost to the health service is estimated to be pound 14.2m per annum. Rotavirus vaccination has the potential to reduce this burden of disease. This study provides a sound basis on which to make this assessment and serves as a baseline against which any reductions that do occur if vaccination is introduced can be measured against.