[The emigration of Italian patients to countries of the European Economic Community. Review of data published by the Ministry of Health]. / La migrazione dei pazienti italiani nei paesi della Comunità Economica Europea. Revisione di dati pubblicati dal Ministero della Sanità.

In the present issue, the report "L'assistenza sanitaria all'estero-rapporti economici nei confronti dei Paesi CEE" by the Italian Health Ministry has been examined. The frequency and the cost of the health migration among Italy and other countries of the European Community during 1990-1993 has been presented. The migration of foreign patients to Italy was in agreement with tourism. About 35-40% of the Italian patients cured in the European Community were tourists. The others were patients migrated to obtain specialised treatments not available in Italy. The most frequent causes of migration were cancer, emathological diseases and radiotherapy, followed by transplants, neurological, cardiovascular and orthopaedic diseases. France was the most frequent destination. The overall cost of Italian health migration was 229 Pounds miliard in 1990, 300 Pounds miliard in 1991, and 264 and 216 Pounds miliard in 1992-1993. In the period analysed in the ministerial report, migration seemed to reduce. Migration however was still important especially from the South of Italy. The effect of the new regulations on the decreasing trend in migration was analysed.

[Classical Kaposi sarcoma and volcanic soil in southern Italy: a case-control study]. / Sarcoma di Kaposi classico e suolo vulcanico nel Sud Italia: uno studio caso-controllo.

We tested the hypothesis of a relationship between Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) and volcanic soil by means of a case-control study based on 70 cases of classic KS and 280 hospital controls from the Campania region, an area of active volcanism in the South of Italy. Birth and residence in volcanic areas were associated with approximately two-fold elevated KS risks. If not due to chance, increased risk in the presence of volcanic soil can have different interpretations, including local immune impairment and correlation with unknown environmental or genetic KS predisposing factors.