scholarly journals Incidence of Acute Respiratory Infections during Disasters in the Absence and Presence of COVID-19 Pandemic

Author(s):  
Mana Sugimura ◽  
Odgerel Chimed-Ochir ◽  
Yui Yumiya ◽  
Akihiro Taji ◽  
Eisaku Kishita ◽  
...  

Abstract Introduction: Japan recently experienced two major heavy rain disasters: the West Japan heavy rain disaster in July 2018 and the Kumamoto heavy rain disaster in July 2020. Between the occurrences of these two disasters, Japan began experiencing the wave of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, providing a unique opportunity to compare the incidence of acute respiratory infection (ARI) between the two disaster responses under distinct conditions. Sources for Information: The data were collected by using the standard disaster medical reporting system used in Japan, so-called the Japan-Surveillance in Post-Extreme Emergencies and Disasters (J-SPEED), which reports number and types of patients treated by Emergency Medical Teams (EMTs). Data for ARI were extracted from daily aggregated data on the J-SPEED form and the frequency of ARI in two disasters was compared. Observation: Acute respiratory infection in the West Japan heavy rain that occurred in the absence of COVID-19 and in the Kumamoto heavy rain that occurred in the presence of COVID-19 were responsible for 5.4% and 1.2% of the total consultation, respectively (P <.001). Analysis of Observation and Conclusion: Between the occurrence of these two disasters, Japan implemented COVID-19 preventive measures on a personal and organizational level, such as wearing masks, disinfecting hands, maintaining social distance, improving room ventilation, and screening people who entered evacuation centers by using hygiene management checklists. By following the basic prevention measures stated above, ARI can be significantly reduced during a disaster.

IKESMA ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ema Mayasari

Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) is one of the most common causes of death in children of developing countries. The cause of ARI include home building materials made of asbestos, has a floor with a thickness of less than 20cm and has a floor area of less than 10% of the floor area. The objective of this study was to determine the effect of physical condition to Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) at public health centers in the region of the northern town of Kediri.This study was an analyticstudy with cross-sectional approach. There were 102 samples on society at public health centers in the region of the northern town of Kediri, and use simple random sampling. The independent variable is the building constructures, the type of floor, and size of ventilation, while the dependent variable was the incident of Acute Respiratory Infection. Data were analyzed by logistic regression.The results showed that, p value = 0,000 <a =0,05, so there is physical condition home has affected the occurrence ARI. While the most dominant factor of the three factors is size of ventilation where the value of Exp (B) 0,014 more than the other two factors, are building contructure where the value Exp (B) 0,012 and the type of floor where the value Exp (B) 0,010.The majority of respondents suffering from ARI and most the of respondent have a home ventilation that does not qualify, therefore people should pay more attention to the ventilation of their homes so spacious home ventilation of at least 10 % of their floor area. Keywords: Acute Respiratory Infection, Building Material, Floor, Ventilation


2021 ◽  
pp. 1357633X2110349
Author(s):  
Peter Yao ◽  
Kriti Gogia ◽  
Sunday Clark ◽  
Hanson Hsu ◽  
Rahul Sharma ◽  
...  

Background Telemedicine, which allows physicians to assess and treat patients via real-time audiovisual conferencing, is a rapidly growing modality for providing medical care. Antibiotic stewardship is one important measure of care quality, and research on antibiotic prescribing for acute respiratory infections in direct-to-consumer telemedicine has yielded mixed results. We compared antibiotic prescription rates for acute respiratory infections in two groups treated by telemedicine: (1) patients treated via a direct-to-consumer telemedicine application and (2) patients treated via telemedicine while physically inside the emergency department. Methods We included direct-to-consumer telemedicine and emergency department telemedicine visits for patients 18 years and older with physician-coded International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision acute respiratory infection diagnoses between November 2016 and December 2018. Patients in both groups were seen by the same emergency department faculty working dedicated telemedicine shifts. We compared antibiotic prescribing rates for direct-to-consumer telemedicine and emergency department telemedicine visits before and after adjustment for age, sex, and diagnosis. Results We identified a total of 468 acute respiratory infection visits: 191 direct-to-consumer telemedicine visits and 277 emergency department telemedicine visits. Overall, antibiotics were prescribed for 47% of visits (59% of direct-to-consumer telemedicine visits vs 39% of emergency department telemedicine visits; odds ratio 2.23; 95% confidence interval 1.53–3.25; P < 0.001). The difference in antibiotic prescribing rates remained significant after adjustment for age, sex, and diagnosis (odds ratio 2.49; 95% confidence interval 1.65–3.77; P < 0.001). Conclusion Patients seen by the same group of physicians for acute respiratory infection were significantly more likely to be prescribed antibiotics by direct-to-consumer telemedicine care compared with telemedicine care in the emergency department. This work suggests that contextual factors rather than evaluation over video may contribute to differences in antibiotic stewardship for direct-to-consumer telemedicine encounters.


2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (10) ◽  
pp. 1198-1200 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joan Guzik ◽  
Pooja Kothari ◽  
Misha Sharp ◽  
Belinda Ostrowsky ◽  
Gopi Patel ◽  
...  

Many hospitals have established inpatient antibiotic stewardship programs (ASPs), but outpatient activities remain limited. In 2016, the United Hospital Fund (UHF), an independent nonprofit working to build a more effective healthcare system for every New Yorker, launched a 2-stage grant-funded initiative to evaluate outpatient antibiotic stewardship, focusing on adults with acute respiratory infections (ARIs). Conclusions from stage 1 included few outpatient antibiotic stewardship activities, variation in prescribing, macrolides as the most commonly prescribed antibiotic, and provider interest in improving prescribing.1


2020 ◽  
Vol 30 (12) ◽  
pp. 1866-1873
Author(s):  
Diego A. Lozano-Espinosa ◽  
Victor M. Huertas-Quiñones ◽  
Carlos E. Rodríguez-Martínez

AbstractBackground:Acute respiratory infection is one of the main causes of morbidity in children. Some studies have suggested that pulmonary hypertension and congenital heart disease with haemodynamic repercussion increase the severity of respiratory infections, but there are few publications in developing countries.Methods:This was a prospective cohort study evaluating the impact of pulmonary hypertension and congenital heart disease (CHD) with haemodynamic repercussion as predictors of severity in children under 5 years of age hospitalised for acute respiratory infection.Results:Altogether, 217 children hospitalised for a respiratory infection who underwent an echocardiogram were evaluated; 62 children were diagnosed with CHD with haemodynamic repercussion or pulmonary hypertension. Independent predictors of admission to intensive care included: pulmonary hypertension (RR 2.14; 95% CI 1.06–4.35, p = 0.034), respiratory syncytial virus (RR 2.52; 95% CI 1.29–4.92, p = 0.006), and bacterial pneumonia (RR 3.09; 95% CI 1.65–5.81, p = 0.000). A significant difference was found in average length of hospital stay in children with the cardiovascular conditions studied (p = 0.000).Conclusions:Pulmonary hypertension and CHD with haemodynamic repercussion as well as respiratory syncytial virus and bacterial pneumonia were predictors of severity in children with respiratory infections in this study. Early recognition of cardiovascular risks in paediatric populations is necessary to lessen the impact on respiratory infections.


2019 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Sielu Alemayehu ◽  
Kalayou Kidanu ◽  
Tensay Kahsay ◽  
Mekuria Kassa

Abstract Background Acute Respiratory infection accounts for 94,037000 disability adjusted life years and 1.9 million deaths worldwide. Acute respiratory infections is the most common causes of under-five illness and mortality. The under five children gets three to six episodes of acute respiratory infections annually regardless of where they live. Disease burden due to acute respiratory infection is 10–50 times higher in developing countries when compared to developed countries. The aim of this study was to assess risk factors of acute respiratory infection among under-five children attending Public hospitals in Southern Tigray, Ethiopia 2016/2017. Methods Institution based case control study was conducted from Nov 2016 to June 2017. Interviewer administered structured questionnaire was used to collect data from a sample of 288 (96 cases and 192 controls) children under 5 years of age. Systematic random sampling was used to recruit study subjects and SPSS version 20 was used to analyze the data. Bivariate and multivariate analysis were employed to examine statistical association between the outcome variable and selected independent variables at 95% confidence level. Level of statistical Significance was declared at p < 0.05. Tables, figures and texts were used to present data. Result One hundred sixty (55.6%) and 128 (44.4%) of the participants were males and females respectively. Malnutrition (AOR = 2.89; 95%CI: 1.584–8.951; p = 0.039), cow dung use (AOR =2.21; 95%CI: 1.121–9.373; p = 0.014), presence of smoker in the family (AOR = 0.638; 95% CI: 0.046–0.980; p = 0.042) and maternal literacy (AOR = 3.098; 95%CI: 1.387–18.729; p = 0.021) were found to be significant predictors of acute respiratory infection among under five children. Conclusion According to this study maternal literacy, smoking, cow dung use and nutritional status were strongly associated with increased risk of childhood acute respiratory infection. Health care providers should work jointly with the general public, so that scientific knowledge and guidelines for adopting particular preventive measures for acute respiratory infection are disseminated.


Author(s):  
Shafiqua Nawrin Oishi ◽  
Nazmul Alam

Acute respiratory infections are cause by bacterial, fungal or viral infections of the respiratory tract. Very young and older aged people are most vulnerable of these infections lead to difficulties from fever, cough, nasal discharge, sputum production, fatigue, wheezing, pain on swallowing, at times ear infections and meningitis. With huge number of Rohingya influx in Bangladesh, camps are overly crowded allowing many infectious diseases to transmit easily. Although there are researches that have been conducted in this area, there remains a huge gap of research in these camps where children being vulnerable are mostly suffering from respiratory disease such as Acute Respiratory Infection (ARI). This cross-sectional study investigated the risk factors associated with ARI among children less than 10 years in Rohingya refugee camps. After collecting information based on their demographic, anthropometric, history of respiratory problem, accommodation and nutritional status, it was found that about 21.6% of 259 children under this study had symptoms of ARI. Living in congested housing and with lack of nutritious food children were found negatively associated with ARI.


2020 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 54 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Hayward ◽  
Sarah Beale ◽  
Anne M. Johnson ◽  
Ellen B. Fragaszy ◽  

Background: Social distancing measures may reduce the spread of emerging respiratory infections however, there is little empirical data on how exposure to crowded places affects risk of acute respiratory infection. Methods: We used a case-crossover design nested in a community cohort to compare self-reported measures of activities during the week before infection onset and baseline periods. The design eliminates the effect of non-time-varying confounders. Time-varying confounders were addressed by exclusion of illnesses around the Christmas period and seasonal adjustment.  Results: 626 participants had paired data from the week before 1005 illnesses and the week before baseline. Each additional day of undertaking the following activities in the prior week was associated with illness onset: Spending more than five minutes in a room with someone (other than a household member) who has a cold (Seasonally adjusted OR 1·15, p=0·003); use of underground trains (1·31, p=0·036); use of supermarkets (1·32, p<0·001); attending a theatre, cinema or concert (1·26, p=0·032); eating out at a café, restaurant or canteen (1·25, p=0·003); and attending parties (1·47, p<0·001). Undertaking the following activities at least once in the previous week was associated with illness onset: using a bus, (aOR 1.48, p=0.049), shopping at small shops (1.9, p<0.002) attending a place of worship (1.81, p=0.005).    Conclusions: Exposure to potentially crowded places, public transport and to individuals with a cold increases risk of acquiring circulating acute respiratory infections. This suggests social distancing measures can have an important impact on slowing transmission of emerging respiratory infections.


2007 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
J MS Arkema ◽  
T J Meerhoff ◽  
W J Paget ◽  
A Meijer ◽  
F Ansaldi ◽  
...  

This winter, the consultation rates for influenza like illness (ILI) and/or acute respiratory infection (ARI) started to increase firstly in Scotland, Greece and Spain in December 2006 [1], where they have already returned to levels just above or at the baseline.


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