Introduction: Influenza is a major cause of respiratory tract illness in infants. The clinical characteristics of these infections are non-specific and the burden of influenza is frequently underestimated in very young children. The objective of this study was to describe confirmed influenza infections in infants < 2 years attended in a level II public hospital. A second-rate aim was to compare influenza infections in hospitalized infants with respiratory syncytial virus (VRS) infection in the same population.
Patients and methods: We performed a descriptive, prospective study between 1991 and 2003 in infants younger than 24 months of age, who were admitted to the Severo Ochoa Hospital (Leganés. Madrid) with fever or respiratory tract infection. Virological diagnosis was made with direct immunofluorescent assay and/or reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction on specimens obtained from nasopharyngeal washings. The patients' clinical characteristics were recorded. Patients with influenza infection were compared with a similar group of infants with RSV infection.
Results: We analyzed hospitalized 100 infants with influenza infection. Influenza caused 4.1% of the admissions in infants with fever or respiratory tract infection. Influenza A was isolated in 83%, influenza B in 12% and influenza C in 5% of the patients. The mean age of hospitalized infants was 8.3 +/- 5.9 months and the most frequent clinical diagnoses were bronchiolitis in 38%, recurrent wheezing in 25%, upper respiratory tract infection in 19% and pneumonia in 9%. Fever > 38 degrees C was present in 83% of the patients. Radiologic infiltrate was found in 65% of the children. Oxygen saturation less then 95% was present in 44%. In children under 6 months of age fever was less frequent (p = 0.049) and upper respiratory tract infection was more frequent (p = 0.01). Patients with influenza virus infection were older (p = 0.002), more frequently presented fever (p < 0.0001) and radiologic infiltrate (p < 0.001) than infants with RSV infection. Bronchiolitis was more frequent in the RSV group (p = 0.006).
Conclusions: Influenza infection is a major cause of respiratory tract disease in hospitalized infants. It is an etiologic cause of bronchiolitis, recurrent wheezing, and fever and radiologic consolidations are frequent. Clinical presentation is milder in children under 6 month of age. The characteristics of influenza infection differ substantially from those of RSV infection.