Increasing incidence of necrotizing fasciitis in New Zealand: A nationwide study over the period 1990 to 2006 - 24/11/11
, Michael G. Baker, Kamalesh Venugopal a
Corresponding author. Present address: Regional Public Health, Hutt Valley District Health Board, Private Bag 31 907, Lower Hutt 5040, New Zealand. Tel.: +644 570 9187; fax: +644 570 9373.Summary |
Objectives |
Because of concerns following necrotizing fasciitis (NF) reports in the media, we aimed to describe the incidence, mortality, case fatality and distribution of NF in New Zealand (NZ).
Methods |
By using International Classification of Disease codes to identify NF cases we analyzed the national hospital discharge and mortality data and reviewed 299 charts from 8 hospitals. The sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) of the hospital discharge data were calculated by comparing with the mortality dataset and chart review finding respectively.
Results |
Between 1990 and 2006 there was a highly significant rise in annual incidence and mortality rates of NF from 0.18 to 1.69 and from 0 to 0.3 per 100,000 person-years respectively. The causes of this increase are unknown, and were not related to 2004 coding changes for NF. Hospital discharge data had a PPV of 82.6% and sensitivity of 76.8%. The case fatality was 20.8%. Disease risk was highest in the elderly, males, and Pacific and Maori populations.
Conclusions |
These findings suggest that incidence and mortality of NF are increasing in NZ. Further work is needed to investigate the causes of this increase and the marked ethnic inequalities in disease rates, particularly factors that may be preventable.
Le texte complet de cet article est disponible en PDF.Keywords : Bacterial infection, Case fatality, Emerging infectious disease, Ethnicity, Incidence, Mortality, Necrotizing fasciitis, New Zealand
Plan
Vol 63 - N° 6
P. 429-433 - décembre 2011 Retour au numéro
Article précédent
- Single center experience of a vancomycin resistant enterococcal endocarditis cohort
- Graeme N. Forrest, Ryan S. Arnold, James S. Gammie, Bruce L. Gilliam
- Incidence of invasive pneumococcal disease among elderly people in Southern Catalonia, Spain, 2002–2009: An increase in serotypes not contained in the heptavalent conjugate vaccine
- Olga Ochoa-Gondar, Angel Vila-Corcoles
Bienvenue sur EM-consulte, la référence des professionnels de santé.
L’accès au texte intégral de cet article nécessite un abonnement.
Déjà abonné à cette revue ?