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Eur J Pediatr (2004) 163: 709716 DOI 10.1007/s00431-004-1523-9
ORIGINAL PAPER
Johannes Forster Gabriele IhorstChristian H. L. Rieger Volker Stephan Hans-Dieter Frank Heidrun Gurth Reinhard Berner Angela Rohwedder Hermann Werchau Martin Schumacher Theodore Tsai Gudula Petersen
Prospective population-based study of viral lower respiratory tract infections in children under 3 years of age (the PRI.DE study)
Received: 5 April 2004 / Revised: 5 July 2004 / Accepted: 7 July 2004 / Published online: 11 September 2004 Springer-Verlag 2004
Abstract Population-based incidence data from Europe on the disease burden of lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) due to respiratory syncytial viruses (RSV), parainuenza viruses (PIV) and inuenzaviruses (IV) are lacking, especially with respect to the disease burden. In a 2-year prospective multicentre study of children aged <3 years in Germany, we registered population-based cases as outpatients (n=2386), inpatients (n=2924), and nosocomially-acquired (n=141). Nasopharyngeal
secretions were tested for viral RNA. The annual incidence for physician visits per 100 children for all LRTI was 28.7, RSV 7.7, PIV 3.8 and IV 1.1. Annual hospitalisation rates per 105 children were for all LRTI 2941, RSV 1117, PIV 261 and IV 123. Annual nosocomial cases per 105 hospital days were for all LRTI 79, RSV 29, PIV 9 and IV 1.5. All ve children (0.27%) who died had an underlying disease and four were nosocomially acquired. Conclusion: Hospitalisation rates due to lower respiratory tract infections in healthy children were similar to those reported elsewhere; the rates for out-patient visits were approximately ten times higher.
Keywords Health expenditures Infant Preschool child Respiratory tract infections Respiratory viruses
Abbreviations CI: condence interval IV: inuenza virus LOS: length of stay LRTI: lower respiratory tract infection NPS: nasopharyngeal secretion PIV: parainuenza virus RSV: respiratory syncytial virus
Introduction Lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI) outnumber any other type of disease leading to physician consultation and hospitalisation in infancy and early childhood [38].The principal viruses responsible for LRTI in young children have been conrmed in numerous longitudinal studies to be respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), parainuenza viruses 13 (PIV) and inuenza viruses (IV) [7, 13].The overall burden of LRTI results not only from the medical impact of the acute disease, but also from long-term sequelae [31, 32]. Moreover, the economic burden, both from the medical and the social perspective, is impressive. Thus,...