Publication:

Epidemiological factors affecting acute respiratory infection at Government Medical College and Hospital, Miraj

Background Acute respiratory infections (ARI) comprising of a group of respiratory diseases of varying etiology and severity is being increasingly recognized as a major public health problem particularly amongst children below five years of age. In all countries ARI is a leading cause of hospitalization and death. Therefore ARIs represent a large challenge in field of communicable diseases. The study was conducted with the objective to assess the socio-demographic, epidemiological and clinical profile of ARI cases.

Methods A descriptive cross sectional, hospital based study was conducted at Government Medical College and Hospital. All children admitted with ARI in the paediatric ward during the study period of one calendar year.

Results Maximum (53.13%) cases of ARI were from the age group <1 year. Males (60.80%) outnumbered the females (M:F ratio was 1.5:1). Month wise and season wise distribution of ARI cases showed that, most of the cases were admitted in the month of December (13.35%), followed by January (12.78%) and November (10.80%).

Conclusions Prevalence of ARI cases as well as severity of the disease was more in participants less than 1 year of age.