Objective: To evaluate the clinical features, risk of prolonged hospitalization, and household infection in Thai children hospitalized with 2009 pandemic influenza A/H1N1 virus (pH1N1).
Material and method: The authors conducted a retrospective chart review of children hospitalized in four Thai tertiary care hospitals between June 1 and September 30, 2009, with reverse-transcriptase-polymerase-chain-reaction confirmed pH1N1. Household contact data were obtained by telephone.
Results: Pediatric admissions numbered 115, 58 were females (50.4%). Median age was 5.2 (range 0.5 to 15) years. Fifty-one (44.4%) children had underlying diseases, most commonly asthma 17 (14.8%). Median preadmission illness duration was two days (range 1 to 10). Sixty-one (53.0%) children had lymphopenia. Chest X-ray infiltration was detected in 89 (77.4%) children. Oseltamivir was prescribed in 104 (90.4%) children; 47(45.2%) within 48 hours of illness. 70 (60.9%) children received antibiotics. The median hospitalization was three days (range 1 to 94). Independent (multivariate analysis) factors associated with prolonged hospitalization (> or = 7 days) were aged five to nine years (OR 7.4; 95% CI 1.1-48.9, p = 0.037) and having an underlying disease (OR 5.9; 95% CI 1.5-23.3, p = 0.01). Five (4.3%) children required mechanical ventilation; two (1.7%) children died. Household data showed that 63 of 109 (57.8%) patients had contact with a suspected or confirmed pH1N1 case. There were 39 (15.7%) of 249 household contacts who were probable secondary cases: 23 suspected and 16 confirmed pH1N1 of whom 25 (64.1%) were aged < or = 18 years.
Conclusion: Most pH1N1 infected hospitalized children had pneumonia, an uneventful short hospitalization, and a low in hospital mortality. Half of the patients were household acquired. Secondary household cases affected mostly children.