title: Case fatality rate of acute hepatitis in Italy: results from a 10 year surveillance.
abstract: Using data from the surveillance system for acute viral hepatitis we have evaluated the case fatality rate of viral hepatitis in Italy. 71 deaths (0.3%) occurred among the 21,553 reported acute viral hepatitis cases from 1985-1994. None reported history of exposure to drugs or toxins. The highest case fatality rate was observed for B and NANB hepatitis (0.5%). One death occurred among the 6,353 (0.02%) hepatitis A cases and 1 among the 909 (0.1%) anti-HCV positive NANB hepatitis cases. The case fatality for Delta hepatitis was 0.2% (1/422). Case fatality rate was similar in both sexes; increasing with age; 0.03% were < 15 years of age, 0.1%, 15-24 year-old, and 0.5%, > or = 25 years. Subjects older than 24 years of age accounted for 81.4% of total deaths. Intravenous drug use, blood transfusion and other parenteral exposures were the three most frequent non-mutually exclusive sources of infection reported by subjects who died from B and NANB hepatitis. These findings indicate that the survival rate of acute B and NANB hepatitis is lower than that of acute hepatitis A; moreover in Italy, as in other Western countries, acute HCV seems to cause liver failure only rarely.
authors.affiliation: Laboratorio di Epidemiologia e Biostatistica, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Italy.
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Stroffolini
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Ragni
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Moiraghi
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Balocchini
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Santonastasi
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Gallo
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marzolini
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mele
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006525:Hepatitis, Viral, Human / Q000401:mortality*; D006801:Humans; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011159:Population Surveillance; D012307:Risk Factors