Abstract

Cystic echinococcosis is one of the main mandatory disease notification at the country level, and even more so in the Region de La Araucanía, an endemic area with extreme poverty and a high rural population dedicated to cattle raising and sheep farming. With a known underreporting, hospital discharges by cystic echinococcosis, provide valuable information regarding the dynamics of pathology in the short term, age and place of origin of patients, economic costs, among others. Objective: To analyze the dynamics of hospital discharges due to echinococcosis at the Hospital Hernán Henríquez Aravena, Temuco from 2005 to 2014. Results: The preliminary analysis of our results does not differ much from the national situation. The total hospital discharges for this period was 1092 with an annual average of 109, a mild predominance of 54% in males, with a median age of 34 years and a high number of cystic echinococcosis in children under 15 years (26%). The mean time of hospitalization was 20 days bed, above the national figures. The information collected indicates a mainly rural and Mapuche ethnic population (31%). The main sites were hepatic (46%) and pulmonary (40%). Conclusions: The analysis of hospital discharges provides useful information for the evaluation of current programs and gives us an indication of the current situation of hydatidosis in La Araucanía, this preliminary analysis will contribute to the decision making in health and the planning of new strategies for epidemiological surveillance and control of cystic echinococcosis in endemic areas such as the Región de La Araucanía.