Epidemiology of tetanus in Italy in years 1971-2000

B Pedalino; B Cotter; M L Ciofi Degli Atti; D Mandolini; S Parroccini; S Salmaso

doi:10.2807/esm.07.07.00357-en

Surveillance report Open Access

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Epidemiology of tetanus in Italy in years 1971-2000
B Pedalino^1,2 , B Cotter^1,3 , M L Ciofi Degli Atti¹ , D Mandolini¹ , S Parroccini¹ , S Salmaso¹
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Affiliations: ¹ Laboratorio di Epidemiologia e Biostatistica, Reparto di Malattie Infettive, Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy ² European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET), hosted by the Communicable Disease Surveillance Centre-Northern Ireland (CDSC-NI), Belfast, Northern Ireland ³ European Programme for Intervention Epidemiology Training (EPIET), hosted by Istituto Superiore di Sanità, Roma, Italy

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Citation style for this article: Pedalino B, Cotter B, Ciofi Degli Atti M L, Mandolini D, Parroccini S, Salmaso S. Epidemiology of tetanus in Italy in years 1971-2000. Euro Surveill. 2002;7(7):pii=357. https://doi.org/10.2807/esm.07.07.00357-en

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Abstract

The incidence of reported tetanus in Italy decreased from 0.5/100 000 in the 1970s to 0.2/100 000 in the 1990’s. During this period of time, the case-fatality ratio decreased from 68% to 39%. Italy has the highest reported number of tetanus cases in European countries. Elderly women are the most affected: the proportion of women aged over 64 years among cases has increased from 60% in the 1970s to 76% in the 1990s. Vaccination campaigns need to be conducted to target this group, and the surveillance of tetanus has to be improved to identify additional groups of population at risk.