[Hospital admissions for meningococcal infections in Madrid, Spain (1997-2005)].
OBJECTIVE
Neisseria meningitidis infection causes an important morbidity and mortality in Spain. Our study aims to estimate the burden of hospital admissions for meningococcal infection in Spain during a nine-year period (1997-2005) by analyzing the Spanish hospital surveillance system.


METHODS
An epidemiological retrospective study was conducted. Data were obtained from the national surveillance system for hospital data (Conjunto Mínimo Básico de Datos) maintained by the Ministry of Health. Information about hospitalizations, age, length of stay in hospital, mortality and cost per patient was obtained.


RESULTS
There were 1137 hospital discharges for meningococcal disease (International Classification of Diseases 9th Clinical Modification: ICD 9 CM code 036 in any listed diagnosis) during the study period. Annual incidence was 2.41 cases per 100,000 individuals. Mortality rate and case-fatality rate were 0.19 cases per 100,000 population and 7.7%, respectively. The average length of hospitalization was 12 days. The youngest age group showed the highest hospitalizations incidence (24.42 hospitalizations per 100,000 population in those under 4 years of age) but the case-fatality rate was higher in the oldest group (11% in patients over 30 years). These hospitalizations imply an annual cost of 592,980 euro to the Madrid Health System.


CONCLUSIONS
Our study shows that meningococcal infection is still an important cause of hospital admissions and mortality in Madrid, resulting in a high cost to the Health Care System.
Gil Prieto
Ruth
R
Departamento de Ciencias de la Salud, Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, Alcorcón, Madrid, España. ruth.gil@urjc.es
Alvarez Morán
José Luis
JL
Portugal
Pilar
P
San Román Montero
Jesús
J
Alvaro
Alejandro
A
Rivero Cuadrado
Agustín
A
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D038801:International Classification of Diseases; D007902:Length of Stay; D008585:Meningitis, Meningococcal / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control; D008589:Meningococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000191:economics / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000517:prevention & control; D022401:Meningococcal Vaccines / Q000008:administration & dosage; D010343:Patient Admission; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D013997:Time Factors; D014611:Vaccination
D022401:Meningococcal Vaccines