Clinical and Epidemiological Characteristics of Children With Influenza A H1N1 in Khuzestan, Iran During July 2009–April 2010

Abstract

: Background: Influenza A H1N1 virus had became a world pandemic during June 2009 to July 2010. Children are the most susceptible group to acquire influenza infection and almost half of hospitalized patients are under 18 years of age. On May 10th 2009, The Iranian Ministry of Health launched a system to monitor and report the presence of this new virus throughout the country. Objectives: In this report we summarized the results of surveillance activity in children aged 2-17 years in a southwestern province of Iran, Khuzestan, in response to the emergence of influenza A H1N1 virus during July 2009–April 2010. Patients and Methods: A total of 232 suspected children who fulfilled the case definition criteria were included in this study. Physicians obtained nasopharyngeal swab specimens, and human influenza A H1N1 was detected, using Real time Reverse Transcriptase-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test according to the CDC protocol. Results: Among the 232 enrolled cases, 126 patients (54.31%) were male and 106 patients (45.89%) were female. Real time Reverse RT-PCR test revealed that 18.1% of suspected children were positive for the influenza A H1N1 virus. The most frequent symptoms among the confirmed patients were cough (34, 81%), fever (30, 71%), and myalgia (24, 57%) and five cases (12%) reported diarrhea. Conclusions: Clinical signs and symptoms presented by patients infected with the influenza A H1N1 virus were similar to those described for seasonal influenza, although with more gastrointestinal disorders.