Retrospective epidemiological survey of diagnostic errors and their implications in the development of human trichinellosis in Braşov County—Romania over a period of 10 years

Abstract

Trichinellosis is a disease that is difficult to diagnose because its symptoms are polymorphic and can be easily confused for several other diseases (Dupouy-Camet et al., 2002).Consuming pork from untested pigs bred in private households elevates risk of contracting trichinellosis. The aims of this paper were to document the frequency and character of misdiagnoses in a ten-year period in an endemic locale (Brasov County, Romania) and to determine whether implementation of an integrated surveillance program significantly reduced the interval between disease and accurate diagnosis and significantly reduced the average length of hospitalization. All 699 cases of trichinellosis in the County were studied from 1983–1992, of which 314 (44.9%) were initially misdiagnosed. The most frequent misdiagnoses (41.7%) attributed disease to digestive disorders, closely followed by respiratory system disorders (32.5%), allergic reactions 4.4%, kidney problems 4.1%, eyes 2.8% and even neurophysical disorders 4.4%. Implementation of a surveillance program substantially shortened the interval prior to accurate diagnosis, and shortened the length of hospitalization.