Infection

, Volume 46, Issue 2, pp 197–206 | Cite as

Alveolar echinococcosis in Germany, 1992–2016. An update based on the newly established national AE database

  • Julian Schmidberger
  • Wolfgang Kratzer
  • Klaus Stark
  • Beate Grüner
  • For the Echinococcosis Working Group
Original Paper
First Online:
Received:
Accepted:
  • 171 Downloads

Abstract

Purpose

Alveolar echinococcosis is a rare disease caused by the parasite Echinococcus multilocularis. The newly established national database should enable us to determine high-risk areas and evaluate the endemic levels.

Methods

The national database was implemented using SQL Workbench. We used EpiInfo™ software to display the prevalence of disease. Moran’s I geodata analysis according to cluster and high risk areas was performed with GeoDa™. SAS Version 9.2 was used for the statistical analysis of the cases (n = 523).

Results

The analysis showed a concentration of cases in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. Moran’s I showed a heterogeneous case distribution throughout Germany (I = 0.208815, Z = 32.6175, p < 0.001). In the period from 1992 to 2016, the prevalence was 0.64/100,000 inhabitants in the whole of Germany, 2.18/100,000 inhabitants in Baden-Württemberg and 1.48/100,000 inhabitants in Bavaria. The analysis also revealed a difference between men and women, with a prevalence of 0.58/100,000 and 0.69/100,000, respectively. The analysis of spatial autocorrelation and possible risk areas showed that the southeast regions of Baden-Württemberg (I = 0.188514, Z = 11.3197, p < 0.001) and the southwest part of Bavaria (I = 0.176953, Z = 13.5144, p < 0.001) constitute the high risk areas.

Conclusions

The prevalence of disease is noticeably high in the Swabian Jura, the Bavarian Alps and the Alpine foothills. Raising awareness and educating doctors in high risk areas may prevent new cases and assist in earlier diagnosis.

Keywords

Alveolar echinococcosis Echinococcus multilocularis Prevalence Distribution National database 
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Notes

Acknowledgements

Members of the Echinococcosis Working Group: Thomas FE Barth, Sven Baumann, Ambros Beer, Doris Henne-Bruns, Tilmann Gräter, Andreas Hillenbrand‚ Peter Kern, Petra Kern, Tanja Kaltenbach, Rainer Muche.

Compliance with ethical standards

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflicts of interest.

Declaration

The work presented here is based on a dissertation and contains some parts of it.

Ethical standards

The study was approved by the University of Ulm Ethics Committee approval and the Declaration of Helsinki (ref. No. 440/15).

Financial support

The newly established national database for alveolar echinococcosis is a project sponsored by the German Research Foundation (DFG) (ref. no. 440/15).

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Copyright information

© Springer-Verlag GmbH Germany 2017

Authors and Affiliations

  1. 1.Central Ultrasound, Department of General Internal Medicine I, Medical CentreUniversity Hospital UlmUlmGermany
  2. 2.Comprehensive Infectious Diseases Centre, Department of General Internal Medicine III, Medical CentreUniversity Hospital UlmUlmGermany
  3. 3.Department of Infectious Disease EpidemiologyRobert Koch InstituteBerlinGermany

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