We retrospectively studied clinical features of the 2015-2016 paediatric influenza season and the rate of pneumococcal colonization/disease in a reference Romanian infectious diseases institute. Peak influenza activity occurred between weeks 5-10/2016; A viruses initially predominated, switching to B viruses after week 12/2016. Patients� median age was 4.4 years. Patients with influenza A were significantly younger compared with influenza B (p[0.001), and required longer hospitalization (p[0.001). S. pneumoniae was identified in 5.4% of cases (only influenza A), accounting for 2.1% pneumococcal disease and 3.3% pneumococcal colonization. Patients with S. pneumoniae were younger compared to negative cases (p=0.164), presented to the hospital later (p=0.049), had higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR, p=0.008), and prolonged hospitalization (p=0.016), regardless of whether the strains caused disease or were colonizers. Commonly used inflammation markers may identify the presence of pneumococci (ESR, p=0.008) or differentiate between colonization and disease (neutrophil count, p=0.011) in children with influenza A.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Miron et al. (2018) studied this question.