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Correspondence
Validity of using Hospital Episode Statistics data on monitoring disease trends
  1. Mohamed A Elemraid1,2,
  2. Kerry Pollard1,
  3. Matthew F Thomas3,
  4. Andrew R Gennery1,2,
  5. Katherine M Eastham4,
  6. Stephen P Rushton3,
  7. Fiona Hampton5,
  8. Pauline Singleton5,
  9. Russell Gorton6,
  10. David A Spencer7,
  11. Julia E Clark1,2 on behalf of North East of England Paediatric Respiratory Infection Study Group
  1. 1Department of Paediatric Infectious Disease and Immunology, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
  2. 2Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
  3. 3School of Biology, Newcastle University, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
  4. 4Department of Paediatrics, Sunderland Royal Hospital, Sunderland, UK
  5. 5Department of Paediatrics, James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough, UK
  6. 6Regional Epidemiology Unit, Health Protection Agency North East, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
  7. 7Department of Respiratory Paediatrics, Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Trust, Newcastle upon Tyne, UK
  1. Correspondence to Dr Julia Clark, Great North Children's Hospital, Queen Victoria Road, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE1 4LP, UK; julia.clark{at}nuth.nhs.uk

https://doi.org/10.1136/thx.2010.153551

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    We read with interest the article by Koshy et al.1 The findings are important in documenting changes in admission rates of childhood pneumonia and empyema since the introduction of heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7). We are concerned that undue emphasis has been placed on Hospital Episode Statistics (HES) data to define the aetiology of childhood pneumonia, particularly ‘bacterial pneumonia’.2

    Given the magnitude of the case numbers reported, it would appear that the analyses are based on all pneumonia …

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    Footnotes

    • Linked articles 154914.

    • Competing interests None.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; internally peer reviewed.

    Linked Articles

    • PostScript
      Authors' response
      Elizabeth Koshy Joanna Murray Alex Bottle Mike Sharland Sonia Saxena
      Thorax 2010; 66 827-828 Published Online First: 02 Dec 2010. doi: 10.1136/thx.2010.154914