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Biomedical subjects

D Greco

Publications and source records attributed to D Greco.

At least 109 records · Page 6Linked to original sources
PubMed1987

Surveillance activity in Italy.

Surveillance activities in Italy during the last 5 years can be summarized in three broad categories: collection of data in order to describe the epidemiological pattern of hospital acquired infections, achieved through multicenter studies, involving hospitals or focused on specialized units; organizational efforts for the implementation of Infection Control Committees in Hospitals stimulated by official guidelines (the 1985 Health Ministry Act on this issue); evaluation of preventive strategies in Italy. Results of a one-day prevalence survey conducted in 1983, involving 130 public hospitals, are presented. Out of 34,577 patients surveyed, prevalence of hospital acquired infection was 6.8% and of community-acquired infections 12.5%. Preliminary results of PRINOS (Preventive Study on Hospital Infections) show a 4.6% incidence rate of infections in 16 surgical wards surveilled. Design of the study and target objectives are discussed.

Cross Infection↗
PubMed1986

National prevalence survey of hospital-acquired infections in Italy, 1983.

In 1983 a national prevalence survey was conducted in Italy to discover the general distribution of infection among patients in public hospitals. Thirty-four thousand, five hundred and seventy-seven acute patients were surveyed in 130 hospitals spread throughout the country: 6668 patients (19.3%) had an active infection at the time of the survey; the infection was hospital-acquired in 2361 (6.8%) and community-acquired in 4307 (12.5%). The urinary tract was the site most frequently involved in hospital infection (30.2% of patients with hospital-acquired infection). The respiratory tract was the site most often involved in community infections (35.7% for the lower tract and 9.1% for the upper). Hospital-acquired infections were more frequent in intensive care units (12.4%) and in geriatric (11.6%), orthopaedic (8.2%) and surgical wards (7.6%). The prevalence of urinary tract infection was 10.4% among the 9.4% of patients who were catheterized compared with a prevalence of 2.6% in the uncatheterized. Thirty-five point five per cent of patients were receiving an antimicrobial on the day of the survey.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1986

A person to person hepatitis A outbreak.

A person to person outbreak of hepatitis A is described: 90 cases of hepatitis A occurred in a small town in Calabria, southern Italy; all cases were under 18 years of age with the highest age-specific incidence rate in the 6-10 year age group. Transmission was identified by tracing close contacts with other incubating or active cases; only eight out of 90 cases were not identified as having a very probable or possible contact with an infecting case. Transmission was high between family members leading to a secondary family attack rate of 51% in children under 16. An enteric disease educational campaign was carried out together with IgG and no cases of hepatitis A were reported in the two years following the investigation.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

A family outbreak of tularemia.

A family cluster of tularemia is described. In a family of three members different clinical type of the disease occurred after having been exposed to a sick wild hare. From the hare kidney Francisella tularensis type 1 was isolated. Pneumonic, typhoid-like tularemia occurred in the father who inhaled hare skin hairs and an ulceroglandular form in the mother and in the child who had direct contact with the animal.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1985

The 1980 earthquake in Southern Italy--morbidity and mortality.

The effects on health of the 1980 earthquake in southern Italy were surveyed retrospectively. The sample population includes 3619 people living in seven villages situated near the epicentre. Deaths were one hundred times and injury rates more than five times higher in trapped than in non-trapped victims. The possibility for escape was crucial for survival and depended on the type of building. Most of the rescue and relief work was carried out within a few days by unprepared local people who concentrated assistance on people sharing the same dwelling. The results suggest that the emergency phase for medical care was limited to the three to four days after impact. During the 18 months following the quake, mortality rates in injured (13.7%) and non-injured victims (15.8%) were similar. These results point to the need to establish, in each disaster prone area, a health evaluation system on which effective disaster relief and especially the preparedness of the community can be based.

Disaster Planning↗
PubMed1985

Case-control study on encephalopathy associated with diphtheria-tetanus immunization in Campania, Italy.

Between 1980 and 1982 in the Campania region of Italy, several cases of encephalopathy in children who had only a week previously been given diphtheria-tetanus immunizations were reported to the Italian Ministry of Health in Rome. A case-control study was therefore set up to test the association between the syndrome and immunization. For this purpose, cases were defined as children between 3 and 48 months who had been admitted to an intensive care unit with symptoms such as convulsions of unknown origin, Reye's syndrome, or death from unknown causes. The fatality rate from encephalopathy among the immunized children in the study was 25 out of 29 (86%). In Campania (population 5.4 million), the annual incidence of encephalopathy associated with diphtheria-tetanus immunization was estimated to be 2.9 per 100 000 doses of the vaccine.

Child, Preschool↗
PubMed1984

AIDS in Italy.

Explore the source record for details and available documents.

Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome↗
PubMed1984

National survey of hospital infection control organization in Italian public hospitals.

A questionnaire was mailed to 1073 Italian public hospitals in an attempt to find out if infection control programmes existed, the type of programme used and available resources. After two attempts a total of 54.9 per cent of the hospitals responded to the request and of these 16.1 per cent claimed to have an infection control programme. Sixty-six per cent of the hospitals who have a control programme also have a system of continuous surveillance whilst the remainder investigated epidemics only. Infection control programmes were encountered most frequently in paediatrics, obstetrics and surgical departments. The organisms most often surveyed were the salmonellas, other types of enterobacteria, staphylococci and streptococci.

Cross Infection↗
PubMed1984

Febrile illness in successive cohorts of tourists at a hotel on the Italian Adriatic coast: evidence for a persistent focus of Legionella infection.

Outbreaks of febrile illness consistent with legionellosis occurred in successive groups of vacationers at an Adriatic resort in 1980. Illness was associated with one of two hotels used by the groups. A cohort study of guests of the suspect hotel revealed 23 cases of febrile illness with pulmonary symptoms, significant antibody titers to Legionella pneumophila, or both, among 291 persons at risk. Two patients died. Attack rates ranged from 0-19% in the nine cohorts of vacationers and were highest among the most elderly. Febrile illness in the last two cohorts of the season was associated with an antibody titer greater than or equal to 128. L. pneumophila was isolated from shower heads in the suspect hotel, but no association was found between showering and illness or seropositivity. Bacteria identified as L. pneumophila by direct immunofluorescence were also found in water from an adjacent hotel and from the outflow from a common well. No cases were associated with the adjacent hotel.

Adolescent↗
PubMed1983

Bacteraemia in surgical patients with intravenous devices: a European multicentre incidence study. The European Working Party on Control of Hospital Infections.

A survey of the incidence of bacteraemia and the use of intravenous (IV) devices among 10,616 surgical patients was performed in 42 hospitals in eight countries. It was found that 63 per cent of the patients surveyed had an IV device inserted at some time during their hospital stay, with national variations between 40 and 99 per cent. The incidence of device-related thrombophlebitis was 10.3 per cent, with national variations between 7.8 and 28.4. Among the surgical patients not given IV therapy, 1.5/1000 had a bacteraemia, 0.5/1000 of them hospital-acquired. The corresponding figures for patients with a peripheral but no central IV device were 6.9 and 3.7, and for patients with a central venous catheter (CVC) 59.0 and 44.8, respectively. Even though there was a strong correlation between the incidence of bacteraemia and certain diagnoses there was also an independent correlation between it and CVCs or peripheral IV lines. No correlation was demonstrated between the number of catheter days per site for patients with a peripheral IV device, and hospital-acquired bacteraemia. This may be due to the low mean number of catheter days per site that was observed. There was a large and not easily explained national variation in the incidence of bacteraemia in patients with CVCs of between 16 and 108/1000.

Catheterization↗
PubMed1983

The 1980 earthquake in southern Italy: rescue of trapped victims and mortality.

A retrospective survey was undertaken on the health effects of the 1980 earthquake in southern Italy. The study population included 3619 people living in 7 villages situated near the epicentre of the disaster. The overall casualty rate (dead and injured) was 19.7%. Nearly all the deaths (192/202) occurred among trapped people who died before they could be rescued. Eighty per cent of all the trapped people were extricated within 2 days, mostly without the use of sophisticated means. The probability of survival decreased sharply, the longer the time before extrication. The crude mortality during the 18 months following the earthquake was 19.0 per thousand among the injured people who received treatment, and 14.1 per thousand among non-injured people. After age standardization, there was no significant difference between these two figures and the expected mortality figures for the Italian population in normal times (14.4 per thousand). These results stress the importance of providing rescue activities in the first 48 hours after the impact. Strengthening the self-reliance of the community in disaster preparedness is suggested as the best way to improve the effectiveness of relief operations. In disaster-prone areas, training and education in methods of rescue should be an integral part of any primary health care programme.

Disasters↗