SSTIs rate a concern

A STUDY has found Fiji has a very high disease burden of serious skin and soft tissue infections (SSTIs), especially among children below the age of five and adults above 65 in the iTaukei population.

Seventeen health professionals authored the study titled Hospital admissions for skin and soft tissue infections in a population with endemic scabies: A prospective study in Fiji, 2018–2019 with Dr Aalisha Sahukhan, Mike Kama, Meciusela Tuicakau and Joseph Kado from Fiji’s Ministry of Health listed as co-authors.

“Our findings highlight the need for investigation into strategies to reduce the incidence and impact of SSTIs in Fiji and in other tropical countries where SSTIs are common.

“We observed an incidence of 647 SSTI admissions per 100,000.

“This rate is very high compared with the few other available reports from other parts of the world.”

The study found patients admitted with a SSTI experienced a high case fatality rate of up to 10.8 per cent in those aged above 65 years.

“Admissions with SSTI also imposed a substantial burden on the health care system with inpatient bed days for SSTIs over the surveillance period accounting for 10 per cent of the hospital’s total bed capacity.

“Incidence per capita was highest in young children and in the elderly, consistent with the ageprevalence relationship observed for both scabies and impetigo in Fiji.”

The study found SSTIs was more likely to be scabies-related and had a higher incidence in the young and the elderly.

The study was carried out by surveillance of SSTI admissions at the Labasa Hospital over a 48-week period where 788 individual admissions of people with SSTIs were observed.

“A total of 556 admissions (74.3 per cent) were among residents of Macuata subdivision, where Labasa is located. Of these, 485 cases were direct admissions to Labasa Hospital and 71 were referred from other health facilities.”