Mortalidad por influenza y neumonía en el adulto mayor. Impacto de la vacunación anti influenza en este grupo poblacional: matanzas 2001-2008 / Mortality for influenza and pneumonia in elder people. Impact of the anti-influenza vaccination in this population group: matanzas 2001-2008

ABSTRACT

Taking into account the gradual ageing of the Cuban population and therefore Matanzas population, there are more and more persons over passing the chronologic barriers human being has set as elderliness, making of the population ageing a challenge for the modern societies. Acute respiratory infections (influenza and pneumonia) are one of the first causes of medical care around the world, and the data of morbidity and the high rates of mortality they cause are remarkable, mainly in underdeveloped countries. A highly vulnerable group to these diseases is the one formed by persons that are 60 years old or more, but we only know the contribution of the influenza and pneumonia as basic causes, according with the vital statistics, because there is a hidden, non quantified mortality that would be important to know for the adequately evaluation of control and prevention measures like vaccination, implemented in this population group. We carried out a descriptive study to deeply know not only what is the magnitude of influenza and pneumonia as a basic cause of death in elder people, but also in what measure death is hidden behind other causes. We reviewed the death certificates of 32 179 people who died in the province since 2001 to 2008. We found 8 473 persons who died with this disease, 4 659 of them were hidden deaths, a higher number than the number of deaths for a basic cause. The disease, as a basic death cause, takes place in the houses in more cases. The main causes of death behind which influenza and pneumonia hide were cerebrovascular diseases, the cardiovascular ones and malign tumors. We arrived to the conclusion that 1 of every 4 elder people in the province had pneumonia when he died. The total mortality by influenza and pneumonia in elder people in the province is slightly decreasing in correspondence with the increase of the vaccine coverage during the last years...