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The aim of this article is to retrospectively evaluate the patient characteristics and the most common infectious diseases in immigrant patients hospitalized in 46 Italian infectious disease clinics during 2002. The main Italian infectious disease clinics were invited to fill in a questionnaire that regarded the number and type of hospital admissions, the country of origin, and demographic features (age, sex, and resident state) of immigrants. A total of 46 clinics including 2255 patients participated in the study. Most patients were men (63%) with an age between 16 and 40 years (63.4%) covered by the National Health Service (71%) and coming from Africa (44.3%). The main infectious diseases observed were: 378 (16.76%) cases of HIV infection, 303 (13.43%) cases of tuberculosis diseases, 282 (12.5%) cases of various forms of viral hepatitis, 177 (7.84%) cases of respiratory diseases, and 196 (8.69%) gastrointestinal diseases. Tropical diseases found were 134 (5.94%) including 95 cases of malaria (70.9%). In conclusion, a broad range of diseases was noted in immigrants which were directly correlated with conditions of poverty. Only a few tropical diseases were diagnosed and therefore the immigrant should not be considered as an infectious disease carrier.

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In total, 5889 cases of hepatitis A virus infection were reported during an outbreak in Puglia, a region of Southern Italy, in 1996. The primary cause of the outbreak was consumption of contaminated food (raw shellfish, vegetables, etc.), with a contributory risk factor of person-to-person transmission. A detailed questionnaire was completed by 250 randomly selected patients to obtain information sufficient to calculate the direct and indirect costs of the outbreak for the individual patient, the National Health Service (NHS) and society as a whole. A conversion rate of $US1 = 1530 Italian lire (L) has been used throughout the study since this was the average exchange rate in 1996. For the individual patient with hepatitis A virus infection, the mean cost was L1.013 million ($US662), which was equivalent to 6.6% of the mean annual income of the employed patients. The total cost of the outbreak to the NHS was L23.98 billion ($US15.67 million), which was equivalent to 0.4% of the total public health expenditure in the region in 1996. The total cost of the outbreak to society (individual patient, NHS and third parties combined) was L37.406 billion ($US24.45 million), corresponding to 0.04% of the gross domestic product of the entire region in 1996, with a mean cost per patient of L6.35 million ($US4150) from a societal perspective. The majority of patients (86.3%) were 11 to 30 years of age, reflecting the increasing susceptibility of younger patients to hepatitis A virus infection in recent decades. These economic and demographic data provide important information for the evaluation of preventive strategies including public education, sanitation and immunisation, so as to optimise the use of local health resources.