Analysis of measles-related hospitalizations in Tuscany from 2000 to 2014.

Printable Copy

Epidemiol Infect. 2016 May 31:1-8. [Epub ahead of print]

Analysis of measles-related hospitalizations in Tuscany from 2000 to 2014.

Berti E¹ Sollai S¹ Orlandini E² Galli L¹ DE Martino M¹ Chiappini E¹.

Abstract

To evaluate measles incidence and its relevant changes over a 14-year period (2000-2014) we analysed data from the regional hospital discharge database on children and adults hospitalized in Tuscany Italy. A total of 181 paediatric and 413 adult cases were identified. Despite all the efforts towards regional measles elimination we observed that the overall measles hospitalization rates for children and adults living in Tuscany globally increased from 0·45 to 0·85/100 000 during the study period (P = 0·001) showing fluctuations due to periodic measles outbreaks. Data stratified by age group showed that the hospitalization rate significantly increased in young adults over the study period confirming an increase in susceptibility to measles in this subpopulation. Conversely no statistically significant difference was observed in the hospitalization rate in the other age groups. However children aged <1 year still exhibit the highest hospitalization rate. Pneumonia represented the most common complication in both the adult and children subsets. No death was reported. Measles still represents a public health problem and national strategies should be implemented focusing on emergent susceptible subsets such as infants and young adults.

KEYWORDS:

Epidemiology; measles; measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine; outbreaks; public health policy; surveillance