The disease burden of hepatitis B, influenza, measles and salmonellosis in Germany: first results of the Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe Study

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Epidemiology and Infection
Volume 142 – Issue 10 – October 2014
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayIssue?jid=HYG&tab=currentissue

Original Papers
Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe Study
The disease burden of hepatitis B, influenza, measles and salmonellosis in Germany: first results of the Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe Study
D. PLASSa1 c1, M.-J. J. MANGENa2, A. KRAEMERa1, P. PINHEIROa1, A. GILSDORFa3, G. KRAUSEa3a4, C. L. GIBBONSa5, A. VAN LIERa6, S. A. McDONALDa6, R. J. BROOKEa2, P. KRAMARZa7, A. CASSINIa7 and M. E. E. KRETZSCHMARa2a6
a1 Department of Public Health Medicine, School of Public Health, University of Bielefeld, Bielefeld, Germany
a2 University Medical Centre Utrecht (UMCU), Utrecht, The Netherlands
a3 Robert Koch Institute, Berlin, Germany
a4 Department for Epidemiology, Helmholtz Centre for Infection Research, Braunschweig, Germany
a5 Institute of Evolutionary Biology, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK
a6 National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Centre for Infectious Disease Control, Bilthoven, The Netherlands
a7 European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDC), Stockholm, Sweden
SUMMARY
Setting priorities in the field of infectious diseases requires evidence-based and robust baseline estimates of disease burden. Therefore, the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control initiated the Burden of Communicable Diseases in Europe (BCoDE) project. The project uses an incidence- and pathogen-based approach to measure the impact of both acute illness and sequelae of infectious diseases expressed in disability-adjusted life years (DALYs). This study presents first estimates of disease burden for four pathogens in Germany. The number of reported incident cases adjusted for underestimation served as model input. For the study period 2005–2007, the average disease burden was estimated at 33,116 DALYs/year for influenza virus, 19,115 DALYs/year for Salmonella spp., 8,708 DALYs/year for hepatitis B virus and 740 DALYs/year for measles virus. This methodology highlights the importance of sequelae, particularly for hepatitis B and salmonellosis, because if omitted, the burden would have been underestimated by 98% and 56%, respectively.