Given the enormous fuss that this government has put on the Covid-19 virus, it’s clear from the number of hospital discharges alone that it is nowhere near the problem that Influenza and Pneumonia are, so why the incredible over-the-top reaction to Cv-19? Even Tuberculosis and viral Meningitis get more hospital admissions.
Hi,
Your request has been passed on to me to respond to.
It takes several years for cause of death information to be determined, reported, coded and loaded. I’d expect 2020 cause of death information to become provisionally available in December 2022 though it is dependent on the number of outstanding coronial cases.
All our data is coded using the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. As such, we are limited by how this system classifies various conditions. I ran a query looking at publicly funded hospital discharges in 2019/20 for you where the primary diagnosis (i.e. reason for admission) was one of the following codes:
A00 Cholera
A08-A09 Other gastroenteritis and colitis of viral, infectious and unspecified origin
A15-A19 Tuberculosis
A22 Anthrax
A33-A35 Tetanus
A37 Pertussis
A39 Meningococcal infection
A82 Rabies
A87 Viral meningitis
A92.8 Other specified mosquito-born viral fevers
A97 Dengue
A98.3 Marburg virus disease
A98.4 Ebola virus disease
A98.5 Haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome
B03 Smallpox
B05 Measles
B20-B24 Human Immunodeficiency Virus [HIV] disease
B33.4 Hantavirus (cardio-) pulmonary syndrome (HPS)
B34.2 Coronavirus infection, unspecified site
B50-B54 Malaria
G00-G03 Bacterial meningitis
J09-J11 Influenza
J12-J18 Pneumonia
U04.9 Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), unspecified
U06.0 Suspected COVID-19 – testing performed – negative test result
U07.1-U07.2 COVID-19
Some notes about this coding:
- The coding system codes Staphylococcus aureus without identifying whether it is methicillin-resistant or not. As such, I’ve not included a code for this.
- For infectious diarrhoea, I’ve used two codes, Viral and other specified intestinal infections, and Other gastroenteritis and colitis of infectious and unspecified origin
- With meningitis I’ve separated the viral and bacterial types, and added meningococcal infection which is often referred to as meningitis.
- Zika would be coded to Other specified mosquito-born viral fevers
- MERS is coded to Coronavirus infection, unspecified site. Some COVID cases were reported with this as primary diagnosis so I think that these are more likely to be COVID than MERS.
- Hantaviruses are coded in various places, e.g. Hantavirus disease with kidney manifestations are coded to Haemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome
- There are no events reported with COVID-19 as the primary diagnosis. This seemed odd to me so I had a look at events where it was a secondary diagnosis and they’re mostly coded to things like pneumonia, respiratory infection, or cough.
The number of publicly funded hospital discharges in 2019/20 with these primary diagnoses were:
A08-A09 Other gastroenteritis and colitis of viral, infectious and unspecified origin = 12087
A15-A19 Tuberculosis = 237
A37 Pertussis = 60
A39 Meningococcal infection = 120
A87 Viral meningitis = 362
A97 Dengue = 55
B05 Measles = 574
B20-B24 Human Immunodeficiency Virus [HIV] disease = 8
B34.2 Coronavirus infection, unspecified site = 13
B50-B54 Malaria = 21
G00-G03 Bacterial meningitis = 188
J09-J11 Influenza = 3468
J12-J18 Pneumonia = 15565
U06.0 Suspected COVID-19 – testing performed – negative test result = 1
I hope this helps. Please contact me if you have any questions.
Cheers,
Chris Lewis
Information Analyst
Analytical Services, Ministry of Health
phone: +64-4-816-2869
fax: +64-4-816-2898
Janet WS said:
The numbers are clearly proof of the effectiveness of the approach taken/ reaction to covid-19. We can look at overseas statistics to see level of problem, don’t need to replicate them here.
Waikanae watcher said:
Statistics are never a proof for anything, despite what politicians may like to think — all they do is provide a basis for analysis about true cause and effect. Why do we not ‘lockdown’ every year to eliminate influenza and pneumonia? Perhaps it’s because the cure is worse than the diseases?
Pam Vernon said:
Reblogged this on Rangitikei Environmental Health Watch.