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Influenza-associated severe acute respiratory infections among children under five years old in Morocco, September 2017 to March 2019
Author(s) -
Zakia Regragui,
Abderrahman Bimouhen,
Fatima El Falaki,
Hassan Ihazmad,
Samira Benkerroum,
Soumia Triki,
Imad Cherkaoui,
Chafiq Mahraoui,
Abdelkarim FilaliMaltouf,
Leila Medraoui,
Hicham Oumzil
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
le infezioni in medicina
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2532-8689
pISSN - 1124-9390
DOI - 10.53854/liim-3003-14
Subject(s) - medicine , pediatrics , disease control , hygiene , respiratory infection , respiratory system , virology , pathology
The main aim of this research is to investigate the trend of influenza infection among children under 5 years with severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) as well as those who suffer from a high burden of disease. This research is based on a survey conducted from September 2017 to March 2019. During this period nasopharyngeal swabs were collected in a group of 942 children under 5 years with SARI, admitted in pediatric services of 8 sentinel hospitals. The virological surveillance of influenza was carried out at the National influenza Center, located in the National Institute of Hygiene, using a Reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (qRt-PCR) monoplex assay developed by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; Atlanta, GA). The median age of participants was 11 months, and 40% of them were female. A total of 112 samples were reported positive yielding a frequency of 11.88% (112/942). Among all the influenza confirmed cases, 68.75% (77/112), 15.17% (17/112), 16.04% (18/112) were subtyped as influenza AH1N1pdm09, AH3N2 and influenza B respectively. Meanwhile, the proportion of patients admitted at the intensive care unit was 5,35% (6/112). Out of which 83.33% (5/6) were AH1N1pdm09 and it was reported that just 1.78% (2/112) of the positive cases were vaccinated. The study confirms that influenza affects greatly children with SARI. Thus, the need for influenza vaccines is highly recommended for children under 5 years. Moreover, our findings highlight that influenza virus is not the only cause of SARI among this group of children. Accordingly, special attention should be paid to the non-flu respiratory viruses.

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