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The European Journal of Public Health Advance Access published online on June 22, 2006
The European Journal of Public Health, doi:10.1093/eurpub/ckl088
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© The Author 2006. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Public Health Association. All rights reserved.
Received August 25, 2005
Accepted May 18, 2006

Article

Measurement and reporting of burden of disease for hepatitis A: results of the EUROHEP.NET feasibility survey

P. Bonanni 1 *, S. Boccalini 1, A. Bechini 1, and on Behalf of the EUROHEP.NET Team *

1 Department of Public Health, University of Florence, Italy

* To whom correspondence should be addressed.
P. Bonanni, E-mail: paolo.bonanni{at}unifi.it


  Abstract

Background: European countries use a wide variety of surveillance systems and prevention measures for viral hepatitis. Each system is adapted to the local situation and an overview was never mapped out at European level. The EUROHEP.NET Project is a European Commission-funded feasibility study for a future network on surveillance and prevention of vaccine-preventable hepatitis. We analysed the measurement and reporting of burden of disease for hepatitis A (HA) and B (HB) in the participating countries. Methods: Twenty-eight countries were invited to participate in this study. An online survey was available from the project's website (www.eurohep.net). The questions concerned the organisation of the surveillance system, case definition, burden of disease, epidemiology, and vaccination strategies. The responses on data sources and the numeric data related to burden of disease for HA for the period 1997-2001 were analysed. Results: Twenty-two countries completed the survey for hepatitis A. Data on total number of hospitalisations and deaths were available from 17 and 18 countries, respectively, although sometimes not complete. Data on hospitalisation days, number of liver transplants and proportion of these due to HAV were often not available. Conclusion: Surveillance systems on burden of disease for hepatitis A show a wide diversity among the participating countries. The introduction of a standardised system of data collection at the European Union level according to ICD-10 but respecting the local current practices is a primary need, especially for data that should be collected in all countries, like hospitalisation and mortality. A link to surveillance databases is also strongly recommended.

Keywords: burden of disease; feasibility study; hepatitis A; networks; surveillance.
*EUROHEP.NET Team: P. Van Damme, A. Vorsters, K. Van Herck and E. Leuridan (Centre for the Evaluation of Vaccination, WHO Collaborating Centre for Prevention and Control of Viral Hepatitis, Department of Epidemiology and Social Medicine, University of Antwerp, Belgium); M. Kojouharova (National Centre for Infectious and Parasitic Diseases, Sofia, Bulgaria); R. Dagan (Pediatric Infectious Diseases Unit, Soroka University Medical Centre, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Israel); P. Bonanni and A. Bechini (Department of Public Health, University of Florence, Italy); J. Hallauer (Universitätsklinikum Charité, Berlin, Germany); W. Usonis and M. Czerwinski (Vilnius University Centre of Paediatrics, Lithuania); W. Magdzik, A. Zielinski and A. Bechini (Department of Epidemiology, National Institute of Hygiene, Poland).
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