Human cystic echinococcosis in Sardinia during the 20th century.

At the beginning of the 20th century in Sardinia human Cystic Echinococcosis was considered a highly endemic disease by all the health operators. In the early twenties the number of reported cases was 429, but incidence appeared rising due to increase in availability of data and to improvements in diagnosis. The fall of personal and public hygienic conditions together with the drift from urban to rural areas during the second world war, had in fact facilitated the possibilities of infection, causing a strong growth of surgical cases during the post war years, so that incidence rate remains high and almost unvaried until the end of the eighties. Comparative analysis of young and probably old cysts indicates that this high rate of surgical cases was attributable to treated hepatic cysts in elderly. On the contrary the continuous reduction in the number of young cysts clearly shows a slow but constant decrease of the infection rate.