The flu kills 32, measles cases up 149%
Overall, however, infectious disease figures declined for many infections, including the potentially deadly superbugs MRSA and Clostridium difficile (C difficile). In fact MRSA rates are now at their lowest in Ireland since surveillance began in 1999.
Figures from the Health Protection Surveillance Centre (HPSC) annual report 2010, published yesterday, show:
* MRSA bloodstream infections fell 14% in 2010, from 355 notified cases in 2009 to 305.
* C difficile-associated disease fell 11% in 2010, from 1,897 cases to 1,696.
In the area of respiratory disease, provisional data shows an 11% decline in TB cases, down from 479 in 2009 to 427 in 2010. However, 34 people diagnosed with TB in 2009 died, with 10 of these deaths directly attributable to the disease. Highlighting a deterioration in the quality of TB surveillance data, Dr Darina O’Flanagan, director of the HPSC, warned it was “critically important for TB control in Ireland” that surveillance is maintained at a high level. Two cases of multi-drug resistant TB were reported in 2010.
The huge jump in the number of measles cases — from 162 in 2009 to 403 in 2010 — was the result of a national outbreak that began in August 2009 and continued until May 2010. Representing a sevenfold increase on 2008, cases occurred predominantly in the Irish Traveller and Roma communities and among those who choose not to have their children vaccinated “either for perceived safety reasons or for philosophical reasons”, Dr O’Flanagan said. More than a quarter of cases were hospitalised.
Of the 108 hospitalised, 73 were unvaccinated. Dr Flanagan said a “catch-up MMR (measles, mumps, rubella) vaccination campaign is needed “to control and eliminate” the continued transmission of measles, mumps and rubella.
A spokesperson for the HSE said that in 2009, they implemented a MMR catch-up programme for all students in the senior cycle in second level school and that they are in discussions with the Department of Health to extend the catch-up to other school children.
The number of cases of new HIV diagnosis among men who have sex with men (but who are not necessarily homosexual) made up the highest proportion of newly diagnosed HIV cases at 40.5%. This is a pattern also observed in other European countries to the extent that the European agency for communicable diseases is recommending that interventions to control HIV among this group be the cornerstone of HIV prevention strategies. There were 54 new AIDS diagnosis reported to HPSC in 2010 and 10 deaths.
In 2010, one death occurred from pneumococcal meningitis in a young child who was unvaccinated.
Of the 32 people who died from influenza, only four were known to be vaccinated.
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