Communicable disease surveillance in Navarre, 2004

Abstract

Epidemiological surveillance in Navarre (584,734 inhabitants) covers 34 transmissible diseases, whose notification is compulsory, and epidemic outbreaks of any aetiology. Notification is carried out on a weekly basis by the doctors from paediatrics, primary care and specialised care. In 2004, 75.8% of all the possible notification reports (a weekly report for each doctor) were received, a percentage that has improved in the last five year period. Flu only reached 14.4 cases per 1,000 inhabitants (Epidemic Index, EI: 0.30), due to the advance of the epidemic peak for the 2003-2004 season to the month of November. The rate of respiratory tuberculosis fell to 11.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and the rate of non-respiratory tuberculosis rose to 2.7 per 100,000. Ten cases of tuberculosis (11.9%) were grouped into four outbreaks that affected adolescents and young adults. Thirty percent of the cases were produced in immigrants and 4.8% in persons coinfected with HIV, proportions that are similar to those of the previous year. Eleven cases of meningococcal disease were reported, (1.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants; EI 0.73), but only in 8 cases was the clinical form sepsis and/or meningitis. Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B was isolated in 8 cases, and serogroup C in 2 cases, the latter 2 were adults and were not vaccinated. The incidence of immunopreventable diseases continues to fall, and for the fifth consecutive year no case of measles has been reported. Legionnaire’s disease, which is detected through the systematic determination of the antigen in urine, rose to 5.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (EI: 1.42), without any epidemiological relation between them. The incidence of imported diseases rose, with 12 cases of malaria, 8 of shigellosis, 5 of hepatitis A and 2 of legionnaire’s disease acquired outside Spain.