BACKGROUND Influenza is a vaccine preventable disease that causes important morbidity and mortality worldwide. Estimating the burden of influenza disease is difficult. However, there are some methods based in surveillance data and laboratory testing that can be used for this purpose. OBJECTIVES Estimating the burden of serious illness from influenza by means of hospitalization and death recor...

Background: Gonorrhoea is an important cause of sexual ill health and is concentrated in geographical areas and demographic groups. This study explores the distribution of gonorrhoea across London. Methods: Epidemiological data on all gonorrhoea cases were collected from 13 major genitourinary clinics in London between 1 June and 30 November 2004. Samples were stored centrally and typed using N...

BACKGROUND Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women. Population-based cancer registration data from the National Central Cancer Registry were used to analyze and evaluate the incidence and mortality rates in China in 2013, providing scientific information for cancer prevention and control. METHODS Pooled data were stratified by area (urban/rural), gender, and age group. National ne...

BACKGROUND Over the last decades, a gradual decrease in ventricular fibrillation (VF) as initial recorded rhythm during resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has been noted. We sought to establish the contribution of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy to this decline. METHODS AND RESULTS Using a prospective database of all OHCA resuscitation in the province...

BACKGROUND Trauma is one of the leading causes of death in the Mthatha area, which is one of the least developed regions of South Africa. Road traffic accidents (RTAs) contribute substantially to the number of such deaths. OBJECTIVE To estimate the number of fatal RTAs in the Mthatha area, and analyse age and sex of the deceased. METHODS A review of autopsies performed in the Mthatha Genera...

Background To assess the worldwide variation of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) incidence, we performed a systematic review and meta-analysis of population-based data published to date. Methods We reviewed Medline and Embase up to June 2015 and included all population-based studies of newly diagnosed ALS cases, using multiple sources for case ascertainment. ALS crude and standardized inci...

An analysis of a 1-in-5 sample of nearly 500 000 patients contacts with 18 deputising services showed considerable variation in the way cells were handled. Telephonists, usually work on shifts including at least one operator who was a trained nurse handled, without sending a deputy, between 3% of new calls at one service and 19% at another. In one service, 19% of visits were made by deputies wh...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE The World Health Organization data bank is an invaluable source of information for international comparison of mortality trends. We present rates and trends in mortality from stroke up to 1994, with a particular emphasis on the last 10-year period. Data are presented for men and women in 51 industrialized and developing countries from different parts of the world. METHO...

Iron monocarbide has been investigated between 12 000 and 18 100 cm in a supersonic expansion by resonant two-photon ionization spectroscopy. Six new electronic states have been identified for which origins relative to the ground state have been determined. Three of these possess V853, one possesses V854, and two possess V852. The V853 state with an origin near 13 168 cm is likely a D3 state an...

Schizophrenia rates were obtained from a British Columbia coastal Indian group numbering 14 000. One subgroup numbering 12 200 showed an incidence of 10 cases per 100 000 population a year. An atypical subgroup of 1800 showed an incidence of 49 cases per 100 000 a year. These rates appear to be relevant to a hypothesis that suggests that schizophrenia may be caused by abnormal fatty acid metabo...