Epidemiology and Cost of Nosocomial Gastroenteritis, Avon, England, 2002–2003

摘要

Healthcare-associated outbreaks of gastroenteritis arean increasingly recognized problem, but detailed knowl-edge of the epidemiology of these events is lacking. Weactively monitored three hospital systems in England foroutbreaks of gastroenteritis in 2002 to 2003. A total of 2,154patients (2.21 cases/1,000 hospital-days) and 1,360 health-care staff (0.47 cases/1,000 hospital-days) were affected in227 unit outbreaks (1.33 outbreaks/unit-year). Norovirus,detected in 63% of outbreaks, was the predominant etio-logic agent. Restricting new admissions to affected unitsresulted in 5,443 lost bed-days. The cost of bed-days lostplus staff absence was calculated to be ￡635,000 (U.S.$1.01 million) per 1,000 beds. By our extrapolation, gas-troenteritis outbreaks likely cost the English National HealthService ￡115 million (U.S.$ 184 million) in 2002 to 2003.Outbreaks were contained faster (7.9 vs. 15.4 days,p = 0.0023) when units were rapidly closed to new admis-sions (<4 days). Implementing control measures rapidlymay be effective in controlling outbreaks