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Volume 14, Number 10—October 2008
Dispatch

Unexplained Deaths and Critical Illnesses of Suspected Infectious Cause, Taiwan, 2000–2005

Tsung-Hsi WangComments to Author , Kuo-Chen Wei, Donald Dah-Shyong Jiang, Chan-Hsian Chiu, Shan-Chwen Chang, and Jung-Der WangComments to Author 
Author affiliations: Taiwan Centers for Disease Control, Taipei, Taiwan (T.-H. Wang; D.D. Jiang, C.-H. Chiu); Chang Gung University and Chang Gung Memorial Hospital, Taoyuan, Taiwan (K.-C. Wei); College of Medicine of the National Taiwan University, Taipei (S.-C. Chang, J.-D. Wang); College of Public Health of the National Taiwan University, Taipei (J.-D. Wang);

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Table

Incidence rate of case-patients detected by surveillance and proportions of deaths, possible infectious causes, and autopsy, Taiwan, August 2000–March 2005

Category TCDC branch*
Total Northern Middle Southern Eastern
Incidence/100,000 person-years† 0.12 0.09 0.16 0.09 0.64
Proportion of deaths among all case-patients, % 73 75 64 79 83
Proportion of infectious causes identified, % 65 63 68 68 39
Viral agents among infection cases, % 42 56 30 37 57
Bacterial agents among infection cases, % 46 36 57 47 36
Rickettsia spp. among infection cases, % 4 4 3 0 14
Proportion of causes remaining unknown, % 23 25 16 29 25
Autopsy rate among patients who died, % 49 53 43 41 67

*TCDC, Taiwan Centers for Disease Control.
†Denominators for the population under surveillance, obtained from the 2002 intercensus (11) and approximately the midpoint of this study period, included all people in the age groups under surveillance at the various sites and were used to calculate the incidence rate.

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