1. The influenza season 2016/17 in Bucharest, Romania - surveillance data and clinical characteristics of patients with influenza-like illness admitted to a tertiary infectious diseases hospital.
- Author
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Drăgănescu A, Săndulescu O, Florea D, Vlaicu O, Streinu-Cercel A, Oţelea D, Aramă V, Luminos ML, Streinu-Cercel A, Niţescu M, Ivanciuc A, Bacruban R, and Piţigoi D
- Subjects
- Adolescent, Adult, Age Distribution, Aged, Child, Child, Preschool, Comorbidity, Female, Humans, Infant, Influenza A virus isolation & purification, Influenza B virus isolation & purification, Influenza, Human pathology, Influenza, Human virology, Male, Mass Vaccination statistics & numerical data, Middle Aged, Population Surveillance, Prospective Studies, Romania epidemiology, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome pathology, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome virology, Tertiary Care Centers statistics & numerical data, Time Factors, Young Adult, Epidemiological Monitoring, Influenza, Human epidemiology, Seasons, Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome epidemiology
- Abstract
Background: Influenza continues to drive seasonal morbidity, particularly in settings with low vaccine coverage., Objectives: To describe the influenza cases and viral circulation among hospitalized patients., Methods: A prospective study based on active surveillance of inpatients with influenza-like illness from a tertiary hospital in Bucharest, Romania, in the season 2016/17., Results: A total of 446 patients were tested, with a balanced gender distribution. Overall, 192 (43%) patients tested positive for influenza, with the highest positivity rate in the age groups 3-13 years and >65 years. Peak activity occurred between weeks 1 and 16/2017, with biphasic distribution: A viruses were replaced by B viruses from week 9/2017; B viruses predominated (66.1%). Among the 133 (69.3%) subtyped samples, all influenza A were subtype H3 (n=57) and all influenza B were B/Victoria (n=76). Patients who tested positive for influenza presented fewer comorbidities (p=0.012), except for the elderly, in whom influenza was more common in patients with comorbidities (p=0.050). Disease evolution was generally favorable under antiviral treatment. The length of hospital stay was slightly longer in patients with influenza-like illness who tested patients negative for influenza (p=0.031)., Conclusions: Distinctive co-circulation of A/H3 and B/Victoria in Bucharest, Romania in the 2016/17 influenza season was found. While the A/H3 subtype was predominant throughout Europe that season, B/Victoria appears to have circulated specifically in Romania and the Eastern European region, predominantly affecting preschoolers and school children., (Copyright © 2018 Sociedade Brasileira de Infectologia. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. All rights reserved.)
- Published
- 2018
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