Case Fatality Rate of Meningo-like vs Meningo Confirmed
Recombinomics Commentary
January 11, 2005
>>The Ministry of Health, Philippines has reported a total of 33 cases and 19 deaths, case fatality ratio of 58%, of a meningococcemia-like illness in Baguio City.. A total of 8 cases has been confirmed by blood culture as Neisseria Meningitidis A.<<
The data released by WHO today would be more useful if the case fatality rate for the two groups were given. One group would be the 8 cases with a positive Neisseria Meningitidus A culture. These cases would be confirmed meningococcemia cases. The second group would be the 25 cases that were Neisseria Miningitidus A negative. This group would have the meningococcemia-like disease. If the latter were caused by bird flu, then the case fatality rate might be higher for the meningo-like cases than the meningo confirmed cases since none of the bird flu cases this season in Vietnam have recovered..
Unfortunately, mixing the data sets reduces transparency and confidence that the true picture in and around Baguio City is being presented, since it is a trivial exercise to give the case fatality rate for each group.
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