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.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 103-110 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Euro surveillance : bulletin européen sur les maladies transmissibles = European communicable disease bulletin |
Volume | 7 |
Issue number | 7 |
Publication status | Published - 2002 |