title: Assessment of measles incidence, measles-related complications and hospitalisations during an outbreak in a southern Italian region.
abstract: A large measles epidemic occurred in 2002 in Campania, a region of southern Italy with inadequate vaccination coverage. We evaluated the burden of the outbreak in children <15 years of age using different data sources. The measles standardized incidence rate was 5,757/100,000, corresponding to 63,368 estimated cases (95% CI: 59,544--67,373). Measles virus strains were identified as belonging to the D7 genotype. The estimated complication rate was 7.6%. A total of 972 measles hospitalisations were detected, giving a hospitalisation rate of 88.3/100,000. Three deaths occurred. These results show that measles can still represent a serious health threat even in industrialized countries.
authors.affiliation: Reparto Epidemiologia delle Malattie Infettive, Centro Nazionale di Epidemiologia Sorveglianza e Promozione della Salute, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Viale Regina Elena 299, 00161 Rome, Italy. ciofi@iss.it
authors.forename: Marta Luisa
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Ciofi Degli Atti
authors.forename: Antonietta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Filia
authors.forename: Marco
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Massari
authors.forename: Renato
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pizzuti
authors.forename: Loredana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Nicoletti
authors.forename: Angelo
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: D'Argenzio
authors.forename: Enrico
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: de Campora
authors.forename: Antonella
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Marchi
authors.forename: Assunta
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Lombardo
authors.forename: Stefania
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Salmaso
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D007558:Italy / Q000453:epidemiology; D008457:Measles / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality; D018103:Morbillivirus / Q000145:classification / Q000302:isolation & purification