title: Comparison of pandemic and seasonal influenza A infections in pediatric patients: were they different?
abstract: This retrospective cohort study revealed that the presence of pandemic H1N1 influenza resulted in a 77.7% increase of patient visits in the emergency department for influenza like illnesses and a 67.2% increase of hospital days in our hospital by comparing to a regular influenza season (2008-2009 season). However, median length of hospital stay was no different in either period (pandemic: 3 days versus seasonal: 4 days, P = 0.06). Except for the patients hospitalized for pandemic H1N1 influenza (n = 111) were older (median age: 4.7 years versus 1.6 years, P = 0.04) and tended to have pre-existing asthma (21.6% versus 9.0%, P = 0.07) than those hospitalized for seasonal influenza A infections (n = 44), this study found no significant difference between the two comparison groups with regards of other clinical and epidemiological features.
authors.affiliation: Children's National Medical Center, Washington, DC 20010, USA. xsong@cnmc.org
authors.forename: Xiaoyan
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: Roberta L
authors.initials: RL
authors.lastname: DeBiasi
authors.forename: Joseph M
authors.initials: JM
authors.lastname: Campos
authors.forename: Daniel B
authors.initials: DB
authors.lastname: Fagbuyi
authors.forename: Brian R
authors.initials: BR
authors.lastname: Jacobs
authors.forename: Nalini
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Singh
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000367:Age Factors; D000553:Ambulatory Care / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D015331:Cohort Studies; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005260:Female; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D053118:Influenza A Virus, H1N1 Subtype / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D007251:Influenza, Human / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000821:virology*; D007902:Length of Stay / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D012189:Retrospective Studies