[Infectious diseases in Poland in 2006]

Over last decade problem of infectious diseases in Poland remains stable with trends of decreasing incidence of most reported infectious diseases. In particular there was observed decrease in incidence of tuberculosis and foodborne infections causes by Salmonella sp. On the other hand it was observed increase of reported foodborne infections caused by Campylobacter and Yersinia as well and viral ones caused by noroviruses and rotaviruses. Despite marked increase of diagnosed and reported cases sensitivity of reporting of those infections remains unacceptably low. Reported incidence of HIV infections remains relatively stable over last years. But increased fraction of heterosexually transmitted cases points to the problem of increased incidence out of so called "risk groups" among the general population. It was also noted worrisome increase of incidence of syphilis. The highest incidence was noted regarding influenza and other upper respiratory tract infections. Low level of vaccinations against influenza remains the problem which requires continuous health promotion efforts. The best epidemiological situation was observed among vaccine preventable diseases, which reflects effectiveness of vaccination program. Though widening of our program into several important infections included in vaccination programs of other EU countries would be needed in oncoming years. Infectious diseases caused 0.70% of deaths. Mortality from infectious diseases was 6.8/100,000 and was significantly higher among men (8.8) then among women. (5.0). In urban settings mortality from infectious diseases was higher (7.4/100,000) then in the country (5.8). In particular districts (voivodeships) mortality indices remained in the range of 5.2 (podlaskie) to 9.7 (slaskie). The highest number of deaths was caused by sepsis (41.1%, without neonatal sepsis).