Back to Search
Start Over
Cohort study of an outbreak of viral gastroenteritis in a nursing home for elderly, Majorca, Spain, February 2008
- Source :
- Repisalud, Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII)
- Publication Year :
- 2008
- Publisher :
- European Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (ECDC), 2008.
-
Abstract
- An outbreak of acute gastroenteritis occurred in a nursing home for elderly in Majorca between 4 and 23 February 2008. To know its aetiology and mechanism of transmission a retrospective cohort study was conducted with a fixed cohort including 146 people (96 residents and 50 employees). The data were collected from clinical histories and through a survey by questionnaire. In total 71 cases were identified (53 residents, 18 employees), corresponding to an overall attack rate (AR) of 48.6%. The consumption of tap water, adjusted by age, sex and consumption of meals provided at the nursing home, presented a relative risk (RR) of 4.03 (95%CI, 1.4-11.4). The microbiological analyses confirmed the presence of norovirus and/or rotavirus in five of the seven stool samples submitted. The slow appearance of cases at the beginning of the outbreak is characteristic of a person to person transmission, while the sudden peak in the middle of the month suggests a common source such as the tap water. We therefore concluded that the outbreak likely originated from two sources: an infected employee of the nursing home and the tap water. The high number of dependent residents most probably facilitated the spread of the outbreak.
- Subjects :
- Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Pediatrics
Epidemiology
Attack rate
Risk Assessment
Rotavirus Infections
Disease Outbreaks
Cohort Studies
Risk Factors
Virology
Humans
Medicine
Aged
Caliciviridae Infections
Aged, 80 and over
business.industry
Incidence
Incidence (epidemiology)
Public health
Public Health, Environmental and Occupational Health
Outbreak
Retrospective cohort study
Gastroenteritis
Nursing Homes
Spain
Population Surveillance
Family medicine
Cohort
Etiology
Female
business
Cohort study
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15607917
- Volume :
- 13
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Eurosurveillance
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....cdcb06597d9ab1f6ba9f41ab04f8eec0