High Rate Of Indigenous Bronchiolitis And Palivuzumab

Risk factors for respiratory syncytial virus bronchiolitis hospital admission in New Zealand

“…Multiple regression analysis indicated the high rates in Ma aori and Pacific infants could only be partially accounted for by factors such as maternal smoking during pregnancy, the deprivation status of the area in which the infant lived, low birth weight, gender and month of birth. Outside North America, few studies from developed countries have examined reasons for severe RSV bronchiolitis in indigenous and disadvantaged populations [1,17]. However, in contrast to our findings, a recent Australian report concluded that the increased risk of hospitalization from RSV bronchiolitis in Indigenous infants was largely due to lower socioeconomic status-associated factors such as lower birth weight and maternal smoking [18].…”

Risks of severity and readmission of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous children hospitalised for bronchiolitis

“…Also children with longer length of stay were significantly more likely to have more severe bronchiolitis by severity category (P =< 0.001) and low oxygen saturation (<90%) on admission (P = 0.038). The median length of stay by category was: mild = 2 (range 1-8), moderate = 6 (1-37) and severe = 12 (1)(2)(3)(4)(5)(6)(7)(8)(9)(10)(11)(12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20). Longer length of stay was also associated with pneumonia as a co-morbidity (n = 14, all Indigenous children) with median of 7 (range 1-12) days for children with pneumonia versus 5 (range 1-37) days for children without pneumonia (P = 0.007).…”

“…7 In Australian Indigenous children, rates of hospitalisation for respiratory diseases (including bronchiolitis) are also significantly higher than for non-Indigenous children. 4 Although the high prevalence of bronchiolitis (particularly that related to respiratory syncytial virus (RSV)) in these children has been documented previously, [8][9][10] there is little data on the clinical profile of Indigenous Australian children hospitalised with bronchiolitis. No studies to date have described the severity of illness experienced by Indigenous children in comparison to non-Indigenous children, nor has the incidence of readmission following illness with bronchiolitis been examined.…”

Respiratory syncytial virus infection and immunoprophylaxis for selected high‐risk children in Central Australia

“…Previously, one of the authors (S.B.) reported the high incidence of RSV bronchiolitis hospitalisations in Indigenous children in Townsville, North Queensland 5 . The annual incidence of RSV‐positive bronchiolitis hospitalisations for Indigenous children in that region was 46/1000 compared with 14/1000 for non‐Indigenous children.…”