Infectious diseases in Poland in 2000

The decreasing tendency in incidence of infectious diseases observed in Poland in previous years as compared with 2000 has weakened or stopped. Increase in the incidence of selected infectious diseases can be linked with the improvement of surveillance resulting from the better diagnostics and greater attention paid to these diseases (including borreliosis, salmonella, and Haemophilus influenzae meningitis). Between 1999 and 2000, the most intense decrease in the number of mumps, measles, and scarlet fever cases as an effect of the end of epidemics was observed. At the same time increase in the number of pertussis, rubella, chickenpox, and meningitis cases was noticed. In 2000, the first case of human rabies since 1986 has been reported. In 2000, compared with 1999, among all notified deaths percentage of deaths attributed to infectious diseases (0.83%) and infectious diseases death rate (0.79 per 10,000) were slightly higher and were the highest in the last decade. As in 1999 the observed increase was effect of the influenza deaths increase (358 deaths, mortality 0.022%). The main disease causing the largest number of deaths, as in previous years, was tuberculosis (36.5% of total infectious diseases deaths).