PROFESIONALNE ZARAZNE BOLESTI U REPUBLICI HRVATSKOJ.

In the Republic of Croatia, occupational infectious diseases are defined in the Act on the List of Occupational Diseases as "infectious or parasitic diseases transmitted to people from animals or animal remains" and as "infectious or parasitic diseases caused while working in circumstances with proven increased risk of infection." The paper discusses the data on the occupational infectious diseases recorded in the Register of Occupational Diseases maintained by the Croatian Institute for Health Protection and Safety at Work for the period from 1st January 2001 to 31st December 2010. The occupational infectious diseases in the Register are reviewed according to their overall incidence, their portion in the total number of occupational diseases in the Republic of Croatia, according to the type of disease, occupation of the infected workers and the employers' business. From 2001 to 2010 the Register records show a total of 1054 occupational diseases, of which 10% were infectious diseases. When compared to other occupational diseases, the incidence of infectious diseases occupies a high third place, and in some years within the studied period even the second or first place. The most common occupational infectious disease was tuberculosis, followed by different types of hepatitis and zoonoses, Q fever and hemorrhagic fever. Zoonoses occur most commonly in agriculture, forestry and veterinary practice. Tuberculosis and hepatitis occur among health care workers, nurses in particular. Given that the results indicate a steadily increasing incidence of tuberculosis in the overall number of occupational infectious diseases, additional cautionary measures should be taken, especially in health care, to prevent further increase in the number of infected individuals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]