TEMPERATURE, NITROGEN DIOXIDE, CIRCULATING RESPIRATORY VIRUSES AND ACUTE UPPER RESPIRATORY INFECTIONS AMONG CHILDREN IN TAIPEI, TAIWAN: A POPULATION-BASED STUDY

2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yu-Chun Wang ◽  
Yu-Kai Lin ◽  
Chin-Kuo Chang
2014 ◽  
Vol 2014 ◽  
pp. 1-5 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sheng-Wen Hou ◽  
Yi-Kung Lee ◽  
Chen-Yang Hsu ◽  
Ching-Chih Lee ◽  
Yung-Cheng Su

Study Objective. Antibiotics prescriptions for upper respiratory infections (URI) are not uncommon, but the benefits for these groups had seldom been evaluated. We aimed to utilize a sampled National Health Insurance (NHI) claims data containing one million beneficiaries to explore if the use of antibiotics could reduce the possibility of unscheduled returns. Methods. We identified patients presented to ambulatory clinics with the discharged diagnoses of URI. The prescriptions of antibiotics were identified. We further matched each patient in the antibiotic group to the patient in the control group by selected covariates using a standard propensity score greedy-matching algorithm. The risks of unscheduled revisits were compared between the two groups. Results. A total of 6915140 visits were identified between 2005 and 2010. The proportions of antibiotics prescriptions are similar among these years, ranging from 9.99% to 13.38 %. In the propensity score assignment, 9190 patients (4595 in each group) were further selected. The odds ratio of unscheduled revisits among antibiotics group and control group was 0.92 (95% CI, 0.70–1.22) with P value equal to 0.569. Conclusions. Overall, antibiotics prescriptions did not seem to decrease the unscheduled revisits in patients presented to the ED with URI. Emergency physicians should reduce the unnecessary prescriptions and save antibiotics to patients with real benefits.


2016 ◽  
Vol 144 (15) ◽  
pp. 3226-3236 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. E. NAVNE ◽  
M. L. BØRRESEN ◽  
H. C. SLOTVED ◽  
M. ANDERSSON ◽  
M. MELBYE ◽  
...  

SUMMARYThe incidence of childhood respiratory infections in Greenland is among the highest globally. We performed a population-based study of 352 Greenlandic children aged 0–6 years aiming to describe rates and risk factors for carriage of four key bacteria associated with respiratory infections, their antimicrobial susceptibility and inter-bacterial associations. Nasopharyngeal swabs were tested for Streptococcus pneumoniae grouped by serotypes included (VT) or not included (NVT) in the 13-valent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine, non-typable Haemophilus influenzae (NTHi), Staphylococcus aureus and Moraxella catarrhalis. S. pneumoniae was detected from age 2 weeks with a peak carriage rate of 60% in 2-year-olds. Young age and having siblings attending a daycare institution were associated with pneumococcal carriage. Overall co-colonization with ⩾2 of the studied bacteria was 52%. NTHi showed a positive association with NVT pneumococci and M. catarrhalis, respectively, M. catarrhalis was positively associated with S. pneumoniae, particular VT pneumococci, whereas S. aureus were negatively associated with NTHi and M. catarrhalis. Nasopharyngeal bacterial carriage was present unusually early in life and with frequent co-colonization. Domestic crowding increased odds of carriage. Due to important bacterial associations we suggest future surveillance of pneumococcal conjugate vaccine's impact on carriage in Greenland to also include other pathogens.


2001 ◽  
Vol 119 (4) ◽  
pp. 142-145 ◽  
Author(s):  
Páris Ali Ramadan ◽  
Francisco Barreto de Araújo ◽  
Mario Ferreira Junior

CONTEXT: Routine immunization of groups at high risk for influenza has been progressively implemented as a matter of Brazilian public health policy. Although the benefits of the vaccination for healthy young adults are still controversial, it has been offered yearly to hundreds of thousands of Brazilian workers, generally as part of wellness initiatives in the workplace. OBJECTIVE: To study the characteristics of subjects that accepted or refused to be vaccinated against influenza and to report on respiratory symptoms in both groups, one year after the campaign date. DESIGN: A prospective observational study. SETTING: Workers at a subsidiary of an international bank in São Paulo, Brazil. PARTICIPANTS: 124 persons that did not accept and 145 that voluntarily accepted the vaccine completed 12 months of follow-up. MAIN MEASUREMENTS: Data concerning gender, age, tobacco use, and any history of chronic respiratory illness such as asthma, bronchitis, rhinitis, and repetitive upper-respiratory infections, were recorded at the time of vaccination. After that, workers were asked monthly by questionnaire or telephone about respiratory symptoms, days of work lost and medical consultations. RESULTS: The results showed statistically significant differences regarding age (P = 0.004) with the vaccinated group (V) being younger than the non-vaccinated (NV) one, and with reference to previous repetitive upper-respiratory infections being higher among the V group (P < 0.0001). During the follow-up, the V group reported more occurrences of upper respiratory symptoms (P < 0.0001), due to both non-influenza (P < 0.0001) and influenza-like illness (P = 0.045). Differences were also found between V and NV groups concerning days off work and number of medical consultations due to upper-respiratory symptoms and non-influenza illness. Gender and history of repetitive upper-respiratory infections were the best predictors of influenza-like illness-related events. CONCLUSIONS: The making of previous reference to repetitive upper-respiratory infections was a major difference between those who accepted or rejected the vaccine. The vaccination itself was not sufficient to reduce the number of occurrences of respiratory symptoms and related absenteeism to levels similar to those found among non-vaccinated people.


2000 ◽  
Vol 62 (7) ◽  
pp. 801-803 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masami MOCHIZUKI ◽  
Kazuo KAWAKAMI ◽  
Michiru HASHIMOTO ◽  
Takuo ISHIDA

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