Burden of Influenza and Influenza-Associated Pneumonia in the First Year of Life in a Prospective Cohort Study in Managua, Nicaragua

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Pediatr Infect Dis J
• Personal Author:
  Gresh, Lionel ; Kuan, Guillermina ; Sanchez, Nery ; Azziz-Baumgartner, Eduardo ; Ojeda, Sergio ; Melendez, Marlon ; Lopez, Roger ; Martin, Emily T. ; Widdowson, Marc-Alain ; Bresee, Joseph ; Harris, Eva ; Balmaseda, Angel ; Gordon, Aubree
  More +
• Description:
  Background ; Influenza is a major public health problem worldwide; however, relatively little is known about influenza in tropical regions, especially for infants. Additional information is required to inform public health policy-making, in particular vaccination guidelines. ; Methods ; Between September 2011 and July 2013, we enrolled newborns into the Nicaraguan Birth Cohort Study. Infants were provided primary medical care and actively followed for RT-PCR-confirmed influenza virus infection when presenting with influenza-like illness or undifferentiated fever. This report presents data pertaining to the first year of life. ; Results ; Of the 518 children enrolled in the study, 441 participated throughout their first year of life, 71 were withdrawn, and 6 died. Overall, 13% of the participants experienced at least one laboratory-confirmed influenza virus infection. The overall incidence of influenza was 15.5 cases per 100 person-years (95% CI: 12.2, 19.5). Infants aged 6–11 months experienced significantly higher rates of laboratory-confirmed influenza than infants aged 0–5 months (incidence rate ratio 2.1, 95% CI: 1.3, 3.4). The overall incidence of pneumonia was 52.6 cases per 100 person-years (95% CI: 46.3, 59.6). Three percent of the pneumonia cases were influenza-associated, and the incidence of influenza-associated pneumonia and hospitalization was 1.7 (95% CI: 0.9, 3.5) and 0.22 (95% CI: 0.03, 1.55) cases per 100 person-years, respectively. ; Conclusions ; We found a significant burden of influenza and influenza-associated severe respiratory outcomes in infants. Our results support the need to explore the potential value of vaccinating pregnant women and infants aged >6 months, as recommended by the World Health Organization in 2012.
• Subjects:
  • Female
  • Hospitalization
  • Humans
  • Incidence
  • Infant
  • Infant, Newborn
  • Influenza, Human
  • Male
  • Nicaragua
  • Pneumonia, Bacterial
  More +
• Keywords:
  • influenza
  • infant
  • cohort studies
  • pneumonia
  • hospitalization
• Source:
  Pediatr Infect Dis J. 35(2):152-156
• Pubmed ID:
  26421805
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC4711382
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  K02 TW009483/TW/FIC NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U01 GH000028/GH/CGH CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  35
• Issue:
  2
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/37537/cdc_37537_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 260.07 KB]
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:4b809d2e21494c538b9beda859153720858868a4d992651b6db0da8619211a97