Infección respiratoria aguda en niños que acuden a un centro de desarrollo infantil

Objective. To assess the incidence of acute respiratory infectionsand bacterial colonization in children attending adaycare center. Material and Methods. A cohort studywas conducted from April to Octuber 1999, among 85 childrenaged under four years, who attended the daycare centerat Hospital Infantil de Mexico (Mexico City’s Children’sHospital) “Federico Gómez”. Acute respiratory infectionincidence rates and quarterly point prevalence figures ofnasopharyngeal colonization were obtained. Data wereanalyzed using descriptive statistics. Results. A total of 85children were studied (40 girls and 45 boys) during 9 090children-days of follow-up. Three children had a history ofatopia (3.5%), six a history of asthma (7.%), and 39 (46%)were exposed to passive smoking. There were 258 eventsof respiratory tract infection for an incidence rate of 10.3infections per person-year (95% CI 8.7-12.0). The main clinicalsyndromes were pharyngitis (95%), acute otitis media(3.5%), and bronchiolitis (1%). The incidence rates of otitisand bronchiolitis were 0.36 and 0.12 per child-year of observation,respectively. The prevalence figures of nasopharyngealcolonization for the three main bacteria were: S.pneumoniae 20.4%; nontypable H. influenzae 13%; and Moraxellacatarrhalis 8%. Conclusions. Study results show a highprevalence of colonization due to invasive strains, as well asa two-fold incidence rate of acute respiratory infection, higherthan those reported in community surveys. These resultsadd to the description of this poorly documentedinfectious disease in Mexico. The English version of this paperis available at: http://www.insp.mx/salud/index.html