Incidence of cancer in Navarre

Between 1998 and 2000 an annual average of 3,303 cases of invasive cancer were registered in Navarre, 58% of them in men. If we except non melanoma skin tumours, the annual number of cases was 2,495, with gross incidence rates of 559 and 372 per 100,000 in men and women, and rates adjusted to the world population of 312 and 203 per 100,000 respectively. Amongst men, the four most frequently diagnosed tumoural localisations were the prostate, lung, colorectal and bladder, accounting for 57% of all cases. The most notable due to their frequency amongst women were tumours of the breast, colorectal, uterus body and ovary, accounting for 54% of all cases. With respect to the five year period from 1993 to 1997, the global incidence of cancer in the three year period from 1998 to 2000 has increased 4.2% in men and 7.4% in women. The incidence of lung cancer and non-Hodgkin lymphomas in both sexes and of breast cancer in women and prostate cancer in men are notable. There continues to be a fall in the incidence rates of stomach cancer in both sexes, following the tendency begun in the 1970s.     

Experience and results of acute lymphoblastic leukaemia treatment in children between 1989-2005 in Navarre

BACKGROUND. The determination of prognostic factors in acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (ALL) is increasingly important in establishing a correct treatment. We analyse the overall survival (OS), event free survival (EFS) and prognostic factors in our 16 years experience of treating acute lymphoblastic leukaemia. METHODS. We performed univariate and multivariate analyses of the prognostic factors we considered most significant in our serie of patients. RESULTS. From January 1989 to December 2005, 50 cases of ALL were reported in 58 patients with LA. We analysed a subgroup of 41 patients with LLA as they were included in standard protocols. In this group the EFS was 78% and OS 87.8%. Inmunophenotype is a predictor of prognosis when we compare Common with Others, with a HR of 13.82 (CI95%: 1.019-166.008) p<0.05; Protocol of Treatment of the Paediatric Haematology Oncology Society (SHOP) (94-99/89) with HR of 0.065 (CI95%: 0.005-0.008) p<0.02; and Age (>120 months/12-120 months) with a HR of 13.82 (CI95%: 0.58-329.48) p=0.1. CONCLUSIONS. The OS in our series is similar to that reported in the literature. Inmunophenotype and protocols of treatment are the most significant prognostic factors.     

Communicable disease surveillance in Navarre, 2004

Epidemiological surveillance in Navarre (584,734 inhabitants) covers 34 transmissible diseases, whose notification is compulsory, and epidemic outbreaks of any aetiology. Notification is carried out on a weekly basis by the doctors from paediatrics, primary care and specialised care. In 2004, 75.8% of all the possible notification reports (a weekly report for each doctor) were received, a percentage that has improved in the last five year period. Flu only reached 14.4 cases per 1,000 inhabitants (Epidemic Index, EI: 0.30), due to the advance of the epidemic peak for the 2003-2004 season to the month of November. The rate of respiratory tuberculosis fell to 11.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and the rate of non-respiratory tuberculosis rose to 2.7 per 100,000. Ten cases of tuberculosis (11.9%) were grouped into four outbreaks that affected adolescents and young adults. Thirty percent of the cases were produced in immigrants and 4.8% in persons coinfected with HIV, proportions that are similar to those of the previous year. Eleven cases of meningococcal disease were reported, (1.9 cases per 100,000 inhabitants; EI 0.73), but only in 8 cases was the clinical form sepsis and/or meningitis. Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B was isolated in 8 cases, and serogroup C in 2 cases, the latter 2 were adults and were not vaccinated. The incidence of immunopreventable diseases continues to fall, and for the fifth consecutive year no case of measles has been reported. Legionnaire's disease, which is detected through the systematic determination of the antigen in urine, rose to 5.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (EI: 1.42), without any epidemiological relation between them. The incidence of imported diseases rose, with 12 cases of malaria, 8 of shigellosis, 5 of hepatitis A and 2 of legionnaire's disease acquired outside Spain.     

Epidemiology of notifiable diseases in Navarre, 2006

Epidemiological vigilance in Navarre (601,874 inhabitants) in 2006 included 34 diseases whose notification is compulsory and epidemic outbreaks. Notification is carried out on a weekly basis by the doctors from paediatrics, primary care and specialised care facing any suspicion of these processes, and is completed with microbiological diagnoses. In 2006 the incidence of influenza reached 16.8 cases per 1,000 inhabitants (Epidemic Index, EI: 0.46), showing a late seasonal peak (March) of low dimensions. The incidence of respiratory tuberculosis was 11.3 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and that of non-respiratory tuberculosis was 2.3; both at similar levels to recent years. Seven cases of tuberculosis occurred in three aggregates amongst cohabitants, and another 7 in non-cohabiting persons resident in the same municipality. Six percent of the cases were coinfected with HIV, and 37% occurred in immigrants. The incidence of meningococcal disease rose to 19 cases (3.2 cases per 100,000 inhabitants; EI 1.46), all of them sporadic. Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B was isolated in 16 cases. There was one case of serogroup C, in a child who had received 3 doses of combined vaccine. In two cases (11%) death occurred. The incidence of legionnaire's disease rose to 28 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (EI:4.88), due to a community outbreak that affected 146 people. Excluding this outbreak, incidence was similar to previous years (3.3 per 100,000 inhabitants). In August an outbreak of parotitis began, and 911 cases had been counted until the end of 2006; and it has continued during 2007. Eleven cases of malaria were registered, all imported. Notifications of toxic food infections has continued to fall (IE:0.48).     

Compulsory Diseases Notification (CDN) in Navarre 2003

Epidemiological vigilance in Navarre covers 34 transmissible diseases, whose notification is compulsory, and epidemic outbreaks of any aetiology. Notification is carried out on a weekly basis by the doctors from paediatrics, primary and specialised level who suspect or diagnose any of these diseases. In 2003, 75.0% of all the possible notification reports (a weekly report for each doctor) were received, a percentage that has improved in the last five year period. In 2003, Influenza reached a rate of 48.9 cases per 1,000 inhabitants (Epidemic Index, EI: 0.91), showing an epidemic peak in January and another in November. The rate of respiratory tuberculosis was 11.76 cases per 100,000 inhabitants, and the rate of non-respiratory tuberculosis was 1.90, with a continuous trend to decrease in both cases. Five cases of tuberculosis occurred in two small family outbreaks. Thirty percent of the cases were produced in immigrants. The cases coinfected with HIV have fallen from 21% in 1996 to 2.5% in 2003. Fifteen cases of meningococcal disease were reported, (2.6 cases per 100,000 inhabitants), appearing in a sporadic form. Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B was isolated in 10 cases, and serogroup C in 5 cases. Eighty percent appeared in the form of sepsis, and death occurred in one case (6.7%). All of the cases younger than six years of age were vaccinated and belonged to serogroup B. The incidence of Legionnaire's disease was 3.8 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (EI: 0.92), without any epidemiological relation between them. There were 7 cases of malaria, all imported. The incidence of food borne infections has fallen (EI: 0.71).     

Smallpox vaccinations in Navarre (Spain) between September and November 1801

We communicate the discovery in the Archive of D. Gaspar Castellano de Gastón of a document providing evidence of the first inoculations with lymph vaccine in Errazu, a village in the Baztán Valley (Navarre). These were carried out on November 2nd 1801, by a doctor from San Juan Pie de Puerto (France), Dr. Iribarren Ayzin, from the arm of a French girl aged 18, personally brought by him at the request of D. Josef Juaquin Gastón, Mayor of the Baztán Valley. The new finding serves as homage, 200 hundred years later, to the first Public Health expedition, carried out between 1803 and 1806, which travelled around the world in order to spread the vaccine amongst all the races and areas of the known world. The expedition was led by D. Francisco Xavier Balmis, a doctor from Alicante.     

A temporal-spatial cluster of sudden infant death syndrome in Navarre,Spain

An apparent temporal-spatial cluster of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) was noted in the Autonomous Community of Navarre, Spain, when four unrelated children aged between 1 and 6 months died unexpectedly within a 7-day interval in January, 1990. The population under one year of age in Navarre was approximately 4,800. The scan test of temporal clustering showed that the sudden infant deaths occurred closer to one another in time significantly more often than would be expected by chance. All four infants lived in a neighbourhood of the capital of Navarre, which accounts for approximately half the region's population. The clustered cases coincided with an outbreak of influenza type A detected by the epidemiological surveillance system and seen by the increase in 1990 over the same period in the previous year in the number of paediatric emergency-ward admissions during the epidemic days. The results confirm the presence of a temporal-spatial cluster of SIDS and favour an environmental etiology where exposure to influenza A viruses is implicated.