[Surveillance of rare diseases in Spain: Spanish Registry of Rare Diseases (ReeR).].

Traditionally, epidemiological surveillance has focused on infectious diseases, but the concept of Public Health surveillance, introduced in Spain with the Law 33/2011, is broader and includes chronic diseases. Health strategies for these diseases need epidemiological information to improve understanding of socio-health needs and to facilitate the efficient management of resources. The European Union defines rare diseases (RD) as those that, being life-threatening or chronically debilitating, have a prevalence of less than 5 cases per 10,000 inhabitants.

[Seroprevalence study of hepatitis B among orienteers].

Background And Objective: Our objectives were to detect asymptomatic cases involved in an outbreak of hepatitis B, to assess the seroprevalence of hepatitis B (HB) in orienteers and to establish recommendations.

Patients And Method: One hundred sixteen orienteers who had competed in the categories involved in the previous outbreak as well as a stratified random sample of 166 of the remaining orienteers in other competition categories were included in a cross-sectional serological prevalence study. HB surface antigen (anti-HBs); total antibody to HB core antigen (total anti-HBc); HB surface antigen (Ag HBs); and antibody IgM to HB core antigen (anti-HBcIgM) along with the history of vaccination for hepatitis B were analyzed.

Rates of Clostridium difficile infection in patients discharged from Spanish hospitals, 1997-2005.

We analyzed the Spanish hospital discharges registered from 1997 to 2005 with patient diagnoses of "intestinal infection due to Clostridium difficile." The mean annual incidence rate was 41.2 diagnoses per 100,000 discharges.

Antimicrobial resistance in non-typhoidal Salmonella from human sources, Spain, 2001-2003.

Objectives: To determine the current state of antimicrobial resistance among non-typhoidal Salmonella strains isolated from humans in Spain.

Methods: All strains of Salmonella from human sources received in the reference laboratory from 2001 to 2003 were serotyped and phage types were determined in the most common serovars. A systematic sampling procedure was carried out in order to obtain a random sample for susceptibility testing.