Open AccessEstimating burden of influenza‐associated influenza‐like illness and severe acute respiratory infection at public healthcare facilities in Romania during the 2011/12‐2015/16 influenza seasons
Author(s) -
Gefenaite Giedre,
Pistol Adriana,
Popescu Rodica,
Popovici Odette,
Ciurea Daniel,
Dolk Christiaan,
Jit Mark,
Gross Diane
Publication year - 2018
Publication title -
influenza and other respiratory viruses
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.743
H-Index - 57
eISSN - 1750-2659
pISSN - 1750-2640
DOI - 10.1111/irv.12525
Subject(s) - medicine , incidence (geometry) , influenza like illness , disease burden , confidence interval , population , public health , environmental health , immunology , virus , physics , nursing , optics
Background Influenza is responsible for substantial morbidity and mortality, but there is limited information on reliable disease burden estimates, especially from middle‐income countries in the WHO European Region. Objectives To estimate the incidence of medically attended influenza‐associated influenza‐like illness ( ILI ) and hospitalizations due to severe acute respiratory infection ( SARI ) presenting to public healthcare facilities in Romania. Patients/Methods Sentinel influenza surveillance data for ILI and SARI from 2011/12‐2015/16, including virological data, were used to estimate influenza‐associated ILI and SARI incidence/100 000 and their 95% confidence intervals (95% CI ). Results The overall annual incidence of ILI and influenza‐associated ILI per 100 000 persons in Romania varied between 68 (95% CI: 61‐76) and 318 (95% CI: 298‐338) and between 23 (95% CI: 19‐29) and 189 (95% CI: 149‐240), respectively. The highest ILI and influenza incidence was among children aged 0‐4 years. We estimated that SARI incidence per 100 000 persons was 6 (95% CI: 5‐7) to 9 (95% CI: 8‐10), of which 2 (95% CI: 1‐2) to 3 (95% CI: 2‐4) were due to influenza. Up to 0.3% of the Romanian population were annually reported with ILI , and 0.01% was hospitalized with SARI , of which as much as one‐third could be explained by influenza. Conclusions This evaluation was the first study estimating influenza burden in Romania. We found that during each influenza season, a substantial number of persons in Romania suffer from influenza‐related ILI or are hospitalized due to influenza‐associated SARI .