CMAJ • January 12, 2010; 182 (1). First published November 19, 2009; doi:10.1503/cmaj.091724
© 2010 Canadian Medical Association or its licensors
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Research

Risk factors and outcomes among children admitted to hospital with pandemic H1N1 influenza

Sean O’Riordan, MB BChir PhD, Michelle Barton, MBBS DM, Yvonne Yau, MD, Stanley E. Read, MD PhD, Upton Allen, MBBS MSc and Dat Tran, MD MSc

From the Division of Infectious Diseases (O’Riordan, Barton, Read, Allen, Tran) and the Department of Paediatric Laboratory Medicine (Yau), The Hospital for Sick Children, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont.; and the Department of Health Policy, Management and Evaluation (Barton, Allen), University of Toronto, Toronto, Ont. Sean O’Riordan and Michelle Barton are joint first authors.

Correspondence to: Dr. Dat Tran, Division of Infectious Diseases, The Hospital for Sick Children, 555 University Ave., Toronto ON M5G 1X8; dat.tran{at}sickkids.ca

Background: Limited data are available on disease characteristics and outcomes of children with 2009 pandemic influenza A(H1N1) virus infection (pandemic H1N1 influenza) who have required hospital admission.

Methods: We reviewed the charts of 58 children with pandemic H1N1 influenza admitted to a large pediatric hospital in Ontario, Canada, between May 8 and July 22, 2009. We compared risk factors, severity indicators and outcomes of these children with those of 200 children admitted with seasonal influenza A during the previous 5 years (2004/05 to 2008/09).

Results: Children with pandemic H1N1 influenza were significantly older than those with seasonal influenza (median age 6.4 years v. 3.3 years). Forty-six (79%) of the children with pandemic H1N1 influenza had underlying medical conditions; of the other 12 who were previously healthy, 42% were under 2 years of age. Children admitted with pandemic H1N1 influenza were significantly more likely to have asthma than those with seasonal influenza (22% v. 6%). Two children had poorly controlled asthma, and 6 used inhaled medications only intermittently. The median length of stay in hospital was 4 days in both groups of children. Similar proportions of children required admission to the intensive care unit (21% of those with pandemic H1N1 influenza and 14% of those with seasonal influenza) and mechanical ventilation (12% and 10% respectively). None of the children admitted with pandemic H1N1 influenza died, as compared with 1 (0.4%) of those admitted with seasonal influenza.

Interpretation: Pandemic H1N1 influenza did not appear to cause more severe disease than seasonal influenza A. Asthma appears to be a significant risk factor for severe disease, with no clear relation to severity of asthma. This finding should influence strategies for vaccination and pre-emptive antiviral therapy.


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Can. Med. Assoc. J. 2010 182: 5. [Full Text] [PDF]



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