ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Gazzetta Medica Italiana Archivio per le Scienze Mediche 2004 October;163(5):159-64

Copyright © 2004 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: Italian

Influence of extra-community patients on the admission at the units of ”infectious diseases“ in the Calabria Region (2000-2003)

Pellicanò S. ¹, Calzone R. ², Del Giudice A. C. ³, Ranieri F. S. ³, Kunkar A. ⁴, Ieropoli G. ⁴, Bertuccio S. N. ³, Foti G. ⁴

¹ Regione Calabria, A.S.L. 5, P.O. S. Giovanni di Dio, Crotone, U.O. Malattie Infettive; ² Dietista; ³ Regione Calabria, A.S.L. 8, P.O. G. Jazzolino, Vibo Valentia, U.O. Malattie Infettive; ⁴ Azienda Ospedaliera Bianchi-Melacrinò-Morelli, P.O. Riuniti, U.O. Malattie Infettive, Reggio Calabria

Aim. In the ­last ­years the mi­gra­to­ry phe­nom­e­non in Calabria has pro­gres­sive­ly in­creased. The aim of ­this ­paper is to eval­u­ate the mi­gra­to­ry ­flow in the pe­ri­od 2000-2003 and es­tab­lish if ­this ­flow has mod­i­fied the ad­mis­sion at the Unit of Infectious Diseases in the Calabria Region.
Methods. A sta­tis­ti­cal epi­dem­i­olog­i­cal re­search on pa­tients com­ing ­from ex­tra-com­mu­nity coun­tries hos­pi­tal­ized in the Units of Infectious Diseases in Calabria dur­ing the pe­ri­od 2000-2003, has ­been car­ried out. Age, sex, prov­e­nance, pa­thol­o­gy, hos­pi­tal ­stay and the month­ly and an­nu­al ­course of Admission ­have ­been ex­am­ined. All pa­tients re­ceived med­i­cal ther­a­py and ad­e­quate die­tet­ic treat­ment.
Results. In the pe­ri­od 2000-2003, at the Units of Infectious Diseases of the Calabria Region, 12155 pa­tients ­were hos­pi­taliz­es: 617 (5%) ­were ex­tra-com­mu­nity sub­jects, 400 ­males (65%) and 217 fe­males (35%) ­with age rang­ing ­from 4 to 75 ­years (­mean 39.5±35.5). The an­nu­al ­course is in­creas­ing ­from 4% in the ­year 2000 to 7% in the 2003. In the pe­ri­od ex­am­ined, ­there ­were 2882 ­days of hos­pi­tal­iza­tion ­with a ­range of 1-60 ­days (­mean 30.5±29.5). The an­nu­al pe­ri­od of ­most ad­mis­sion was: June and September (63 pa­tients, 10%), October (62 cases, 10%) and January (58 cas­es, 10%). The ­main rea­sons of ad­mis­sion ­were dis­eas­es of the liv­er and di­ges­tive ap­pa­ra­tus (18%) and res­pir­a­to­ry ap­pa­ra­tus and HIV in­fec­tion (14%). As to the prov­e­nance con­ti­nent, 293 pa­tients ­came ­from Africa (48%), 173 ­from Europe (28%), 70 from America (11%), 64 from Asia (10%) and 17 from Australia (3%).
Conclusion. The dis­eas­es of im­mi­grants ­were main­ly re­lat­ed to ­their so­cial-ec­o­nom­ic and hy­gien­ic con­di ­tions of ­life. The im­mi­gra­tion has rel­a­tive­ly mod­i­fied, at ­present, the ty­pol­o­gy of pa­tients at the Units of Infectious Diseases in the Calabria Region but the na­tion­al ­trend, as a ­whole, ­leads to the hy­poth­e­sis of an in­crease of hos­pi­tal­iza­tions. In the con­sid­ered pe­ri­od, the ­cost in ­euro’s thou­sand ­make ev­i­dent the ne­ces­sity of a san­i­tary ­intra- ex­tra hos­pi­ta­li­er, in­creas­ing and ­open even­tu­al­ly new con­sult­ing-­rooms for ­cost’s con­tain­ment and a bet­ter uti­lize of san­i­tary re­sourc­es.