This statistic displays common health conditions prevalent in Ireland in the past 12 months as of 2023/24. The most prevalent health complaint was high blood pressure, with eight percent reporting this condition.

This statistic displays the distribution of principal causes of death in Ireland in 2018, by age group. The main cause of death in this year was non-respiratory cancers for people aged zero to 64 years, accounting for **** percent of deaths.

Background: Since March 2020, Ireland has experienced an outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). While several cohorts from China have been described, there is little data describing the epidemiological and clinical characteristics of patients with COVID-19 in Ireland. To improve our understanding of this emerging infection we carried out a retrospective review of patient data to examine the clinical characteristics of patients admitted for COVID-19 hospital treatment.

Methods: Demographic, clinical and laboratory data on the first 100 adult patients admitted to Mater Misericordiae University Hospital (MMUH) for in-patient COVID-19 treatment after onset of the outbreak in March 2020 was extracted from clinical and administrative records.

Results: Fifty-eight per cent were male, 63% were Irish nationals, and median age was 45 years (interquartile range [IQR] =34-64 years). Patients had symptoms for a median of five days before diagnosis (IQR=2.5-7 days), most commonly cough (72%), fever (65%), dyspnoea (37%), fatigue (28%), myalgia (27%) and headache (24%). Of all cases, 54 had at least one pre-existing chronic illness (most commonly hypertension, diabetes mellitus or asthma). At initial assessment, the most common abnormal findings were: C-reactive protein >7.0mg/L (74%), ferritin >247μg/L (women) or >275μg/L (men) (62%), D-dimer >0.5μg/dL (62%), chest imaging (59%), NEWS Score (modified) of ≥3 (55%) and heart rate >90/min (51%). Twenty-seven required supplemental oxygen, of which 17 were admitted to the intensive care unit - 14 requiring ventilation. Forty received antiviral treatment (most commonly hydroxychloroquine or lopinavir/ritonavir). Four died, 17 were admitted to intensive care, and 74 were discharged home, with nine days the median hospital stay (IQR=6-11).

Conclusion: Our findings reinforce the emerging consensus of COVID-19 as an acute life-threatening disease and highlights, the importance of laboratory (ferritin, C-reactive protein, D-dimer) and radiological parameters, in addition to clinical parameters. Further cohort studies involving larger samples followed longitudinally are a priority.

Objective: Lyme disease (LD) is the most common zoonosis in most regions of the world. The disease can be difficult to diagnose due to the wide range of symptoms that patients present with. There is extensive evidence of polymicrobial infections in Ticks, but very little data on multiple infections in humans . The purpose of this study was to investigate the occurrence of co-infecting pathogens, and to provide data to help manage the diagnosis and treatment of each case.

Design:Â This was a prospective observational study of Lyme Disease and co-infections.

Setting: The study was conducted at a private Infectious Disease clinic in Dublin Ireland and approved by the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital Research Ethics committee.

Participants:Â Blood samples were taken prior to a first consultation from a group of 54 patients with suspected Lyme disease during the period 8/12/2016 to 7/2/2017. Samples were tested for a group of infections at ArminLabs, Augsburg, Germany.

Res...

Objective: By definition a rare disease affects fewer than 1 in 2,000 people but collectively 1 in 17 people are affected at some time in their lives. Rare disease patients often describe feeling isolated and unsupported. The needs of individuals living with rare disease(s) are not well met globally and have not been specifically explored in Northern Ireland.Methods: An online survey was conducted in spring of 2017, focused on information and communication needs, to identify overarching themes. Databases were searched to place responses in an international context.Results: There were 240 survey respondents with four overarching themes identified: sources of information; medical care; rare disease community; and public awareness. Thirty relevant papers resulted from the literature search. A coordinated and transparent approach for improved medical care is needed where researchers, practitioners, and policy makers work with patients, carers, and rare disease advocates to ensure a fully considered rare disease strategy is implemented. In line with that developed by many other countries, a physical or virtual Northern Ireland reference network or center of excellence for rare diseases would provide an important strategic link. Sustainable funding, resources for rare disease charities, and more cross-border working would help build a local rare disease community. Major challenges highlighted include finding the right health and social care information. The internet was the most regularly accessed, and perceived as the easiest way, to source information on rare disease. Improved signposting to accredited information, ideally by the creation of a locally relevant online information hub, a local rare disease registry that can integrate with international systems, a local rare disease coordinator, and improving public awareness are urgent needs.Conclusions: Aligned to internationally reported outcomes, practical issues for future development based on the voices of individuals living, and working with a rare condition are described. It is essential that ongoing research evaluates changes to ensure that the best possible structures and mechanisms are put in place to improve communication and information systems for those affected by a rare condition(s).

As of 2024, 31 percent of respondents in Ireland aged 65 years and above reported they were somewhat limited in daily life by a long standing illness or health problem. Furthermore, around seven percent of people in this age group were severely limited by a health condition. The prevalence of limiting health conditions were more common as age increased.

Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Male: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 4.000 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 4.100 Ratio for 2015. Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Male: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 4.600 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 10.200 Ratio in 1990 and a record low of 4.000 Ratio in 2016. Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Under-5: Male: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Ireland – Table IE.World Bank: Health Statistics. Under-five mortality rate, male is the probability per 1,000 that a newborn male baby will die before reaching age five, if subject to male age-specific mortality rates of the specified year.; ; Estimates Developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted Average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys.

Project Tycho datasets contain case counts for reported disease conditions for countries around the world. The Project Tycho data curation team extracts these case counts from various reputable sources, typically from national or international health authorities, such as the US Centers for Disease Control or the World Health Organization. These original data sources include both open- and restricted-access sources. For restricted-access sources, the Project Tycho team has obtained permission for redistribution from data contributors. All datasets contain case count data that are identical to counts published in the original source and no counts have been modified in any way by the Project Tycho team, except for aggregation of individual case count data into daily counts when that was the best data available for a disease and location. The Project Tycho team has pre-processed datasets by adding new variables, such as standard disease and location identifiers, that improve data interpretability. We also formatted the data into a standard data format. All geographic locations at the country and admin1 level have been represented at the same geographic level as in the data source, provided an ISO code or codes could be identified, unless the data source specifies that the location is listed at an inaccurate geographical level. For more information about decisions made by the curation team, recommended data processing steps, and the data sources used, please see the README that is included in the dataset download ZIP file.

Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 3.300 Ratio in 2016. This records a decrease from the previous number of 3.400 Ratio for 2015. Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 3.800 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 8.500 Ratio in 1990 and a record low of 3.300 Ratio in 2016. Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Infant: Male: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Ireland – Table IE.World Bank: Health Statistics. Infant mortality rate, male is the number of male infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 male live births in a given year.; ; Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted Average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys.

Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 3.000 Ratio in 2017. This stayed constant from the previous number of 3.000 Ratio for 2016. Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 8.150 Ratio from Dec 1960 (Median) to 2017, with 58 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 30.300 Ratio in 1960 and a record low of 3.000 Ratio in 2017. Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Infant: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Ireland – Table IE.World Bank: Health Statistics. Infant mortality rate is the number of infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 live births in a given year.; ; Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys.

Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Infant: Female: per 1000 Live Births data was reported at 2.800 Ratio in 2016. This stayed constant from the previous number of 2.800 Ratio for 2015. Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Infant: Female: per 1000 Live Births data is updated yearly, averaging 3.200 Ratio from Dec 1990 (Median) to 2016, with 5 observations. The data reached an all-time high of 6.800 Ratio in 1990 and a record low of 2.800 Ratio in 2016. Ireland IE: Mortality Rate: Infant: Female: per 1000 Live Births data remains active status in CEIC and is reported by World Bank. The data is categorized under Global Database’s Ireland – Table IE.World Bank: Health Statistics. Infant mortality rate, female is the number of female infants dying before reaching one year of age, per 1,000 female live births in a given year.; ; Estimates developed by the UN Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UNICEF, WHO, World Bank, UN DESA Population Division) at www.childmortality.org.; Weighted Average; Given that data on the incidence and prevalence of diseases are frequently unavailable, mortality rates are often used to identify vulnerable populations. Moreover, they are among the indicators most frequently used to compare socioeconomic development across countries. Under-five mortality rates are higher for boys than for girls in countries in which parental gender preferences are insignificant. Under-five mortality captures the effect of gender discrimination better than infant mortality does, as malnutrition and medical interventions have more significant impacts to this age group. Where female under-five mortality is higher, girls are likely to have less access to resources than boys.

Sea lice are a naturally occurring marine parasite of fish. Over 500 species can be found on most fish types worldwide. Two main species affect salmon in Ireland, Lepeophtheirus salmonis (the salmon louse) and Caligus elongatus. Sea lice monitoring of finfish sites have taken place on licenced finfish aquaculture around Ireland. This sea lice monitoring programme has been in operation since 1991 and is widely regarded as international best practice. The purpose of the monitoring programme has been to evaluate the levels of sea lice on growing finfish so that information on a control strategy can be provided, by advising treatment if necessary. All stocks of fish have been inspected by Marine Institute Inspectors on 14 occasions throughout the year. The Marine Institute has carried out regular inspections of sea lice levels on all fish farms in Ireland in accordance with the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine sea lice Monitoring Protocol (2000) and Strategy (2008). Results from the programme have been reported each month to stakeholders and all the data has been published on an annual basis. Data complete for each year since 1991.

In 2022, the highest cancer rate for men and women among European countries was in Denmark with 728.5 cancer cases per 100,000 population. Ireland and the Netherlands followed, with 641.6 and 641.4 people diagnosed with cancer per 100,000 population, respectively.
Lung cancer Lung cancer is the deadliest type of cancer worldwide, and in Europe, Germany was the country with the highest number of lung cancer deaths in 2022, with 47.7 thousand deaths. However, when looking at the incidence rate of lung cancer, Hungary had the highest for both males and females, with 138.4 and 72.3 cases per 100,000 population, respectively.
Breast cancer Breast cancer is the most common type of cancer among women with an incidence rate of 83.3 cases per 100,000 population in Europe in 2022. Cyprus was the country with the highest incidence of breast cancer, followed by Belgium and France. The mortality rate due to breast cancer was 34.8 deaths per 100,000 population across Europe, and Cyprus was again the country with the highest figure.

Salmonid farming in Ireland is mostly organic, which implies limited disease treatment options. This highlights the importance of biosecurity for preventing the introduction and spread of infectious agents. Similarly, the effect of local network properties on infection spread processes has rarely been evaluated. In this paper, we characterized the biosecurity of salmonid farms in Ireland using a survey, and then developed a score for benchmarking the disease risk of salmonid farms. The usefulness and validity of this score, together with farm indegree (dichotomized as ≤ 1 or > 1), were assessed through generalized Poisson regression models, in which the modeled outcome was pathogen richness, defined here as the number of different diseases affecting a farm during a year. Seawater salmon (SW salmon) farms had the highest biosecurity scores with a median (interquartile range) of 82.3 (5.4), followed by freshwater salmon (FW salmon) with 75.2 (8.2), and freshwater trout (FW trout) farms with 74.8 (4.5). For FW salmon and trout farms, the top ranked model (in terms of leave-one-out information criteria, looic) was the null model (looic = 46.1). For SW salmon farms, the best ranking model was the full model with both predictors and their interaction (looic = 33.3). Farms with a higher biosecurity score were associated with lower pathogen richness, and farms with indegree > 1 (i.e. more than one fish supplier) were associated with increased pathogen richness. The effect of the interaction between these variables was also important, showing an antagonistic effect. This would indicate that biosecurity effectiveness is achieved through a broader perspective on the subject, which includes a minimization in the number of suppliers and hence in the possibilities for infection to enter a farm. The work presented here could be used to elaborate indicators of a farm's disease risk based on its biosecurity score and indegree, to inform risk-based disease surveillance and control strategies for private and public stakeholders. Pathogen richness models dataPathogen richness and biosecurity score based on field work carried out in Ireland during 2015.Data_PLOS.csv

In 2023, Singapore dominated the ranking of the world's health and health systems, followed by Japan and South Korea. The health index score is calculated by evaluating various indicators that assess the health of the population, and access to the services required to sustain good health, including health outcomes, health systems, sickness and risk factors, and mortality rates. The health and health system index score of the top ten countries with the best healthcare system in the world ranged between 82 and 86.9, measured on a scale of zero to 100.

Global Health Security Index  Numerous health and health system indexes have been developed to assess various attributes and aspects of a nation's healthcare system. One such measure is the Global Health Security (GHS) index. This index evaluates the ability of 195 nations to identify, assess, and mitigate biological hazards in addition to political and socioeconomic concerns, the quality of their healthcare systems, and their compliance with international finance and standards. In 2021, the United States was ranked at the top of the GHS index, but due to multiple reasons, the U.S. government failed to effectively manage the COVID-19 pandemic. The GHS Index evaluates capability and identifies preparation gaps; nevertheless, it cannot predict a nation's resource allocation in case of a public health emergency.

Universal Health Coverage Index  Another health index that is used globally by the members of the United Nations (UN) is the universal health care (UHC) service coverage index. The UHC index monitors the country's progress related to the sustainable developmental goal (SDG) number three. The UHC service coverage index tracks 14 indicators related to reproductive, maternal, newborn, and child health, infectious diseases, non-communicable diseases, service capacity, and access to care. The main target of universal health coverage is to ensure that no one is denied access to essential medical services due to financial hardships. In 2021, the UHC index scores ranged from as low as 21 to a high score of 91 across 194 countries. 

Irish farmers are adversely affected by noncommunicable diseases. Although there has been an increase in farmer health promotion activities in Ireland, farmers views on lifestyle programs are currently unknown. To qualitatively analyze the impact of the previously mentioned 6-week physical activity and health education intervention on farmer health and to investigate how best to support this cohort moving forward. A qualitative study was conducted online (two interviews, three focus groups) with fourteen Irish farmers (53.5 ± 6.5 years) who completed the 6-week program in December 2019. Interviews and focus groups were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed for themes. The main themes that emerged from this study were barriers, facilitators, and recommendations for lifestyle programs aimed to improve farmer health. Additional views on health and lifestyle behaviors were mentioned. Time of year was reported as the main barrier for farmers to engage in lifestyle programs. The key facilitators reported by farmers were the social health benefits obtained from the program and the farmer-specific nature of the program. Farmers suggested that physical activity and health education programs that are farmer-specific, delivered locally and catering for all fitness abilities should be more widely available to them. Although some farmers reported that they maintained the lifestyle behaviors they established during the initial 6-week program, follow-up supports are needed to encourage sustainable behavior change. Interventions that are farmer-specific, community-based, and feasible within the context of available resources may be effective in improving farmer health. Working in partnership with organizations that support farmers has the potential to improve farmer health.

Seasonal influenza surveillance is usually carried out by sentinel general practitioners (GPs) who compile weekly reports based on the number of influenza-like illness (ILI) clinical cases observed among visited patients. This traditional practice for surveillance generally presents several issues, such as a delay of one week or more in releasing reports, population biases in the health-seeking behaviour, and the lack of a common definition of ILI case. On the other hand, the availability of novel data streams has recently led to the emergence of non-traditional approaches for disease surveillance that can alleviate these issues. In Europe, a participatory web-based surveillance system called Influenzanet represents a powerful tool for monitoring seasonal influenza epidemics thanks to aid of self-selected volunteers from the general population who monitor and report their health status through Internet-based surveys, thus allowing a real-time estimate of the level of influenza circulating in the population. In this work, we propose an unsupervised probabilistic framework that combines time series analysis of self-reported symptoms collected by the Influenzanet platforms and performs an algorithmic detection of groups of symptoms, called syndromes. The aim of this study is to show that participatory web-based surveillance systems are capable of detecting the temporal trends of influenza-like illness even without relying on a specific case definition. The methodology was applied to data collected by Influenzanet platforms over the course of six influenza seasons, from 2011-2012 to 2016-2017, with an average of 34,000 participants per season. Results show that our framework is capable of selecting temporal trends of syndromes that closely follow the ILI incidence rates reported by the traditional surveillance systems in the various countries (Pearson correlations ranging from 0.69 for Italy to 0.88 for the Netherlands, with the sole exception of Ireland with a correlation of 0.38). The proposed framework was able to forecast quite accurately the ILI trend of the forthcoming influenza season (2016-2017) based only on the available information of the previous years (2011-2016). Furthermore, to broaden the scope of our approach, we applied it both in a forecasting fashion to predict the ILI trend of the 2016-2017 influenza season (Pearson correlations ranging from 0.60 for Ireland and UK, and 0.85 for the Netherlands) and also to detect gastrointestinal syndrome in France (Pearson correlation of 0.66). The final result is a near-real-time flexible surveillance framework not constrained by any specific case definition and capable of capturing the heterogeneity in symptoms circulation during influenza epidemics in the various European countries.