The discharge form: advantages and limits legionellosis cases individuation
Trerotoli, P.; Montagna, M.T.; Borella, P.; Romano Spica, V.; Stancanelli, G.; Triassi, M.; Serio, G.; Napoli, C.; Soldano, S.; Tatò, D.; Vercilli, F.; Gentile, C.; Quaranta, G.; Volpe, M.; Ambrosio, A.; Santarpia, R.; Montegrosso, S.
Annali di Igiene Medicina Preventiva e di Comunita 15(6): 817-824
2003
ISSN/ISBN: 1120-9135 PMID: 15049538 Document Number: 557481
Despite legionellosis surveillance is active in Italy since many years, the disease notification appears still undervalued. A multicentric survey was carried out among 5 big Italian hospitals. It examined 11,435 discharge forms (1999-2001), reporting pneumonia diagnosis. Legionellosis (II class of notify system for infectious disease) was studied among pneumonia diagnosis by discharge forms. According to the ICD9-CM, there's no specific code for legionellosis (this disease is included among "others gram-negative pneumonia"). So the presumed pneumonia imputable to Legionella spp were the 2.7% of the whole number of analyzed discharge forms. Besides, the data regarding the other pneumonia showed that the etiological agent was specified only in the 11.2% of the case. This situation could be rectified both introducing adequate discharge forms codes and promoting the etiological diagnosis during the hospital stay.