Date of Award

1-1-2012

Language

English

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Program

Epidemiology

Content Description

1 online resource (vi, 140 pages) : illustrations.

Dissertation/Thesis Chair

Marilyn A Kacica

Committee Members

Kimerbly A Kilby, Kristi McClamroch, Bryan Cherry

Keywords

2009 H1N1, Hospitalizations, Influenza, Surveillance, H1N1 influenza, Communicable diseases in children, Emergency management

Subject Categories

Epidemiology

Abstract

Influenza is among the most important of the endemic, epidemic, and pandemic diseases infecting humans. In June 2009, the World Health Organization raised the worldwide pandemic alert level to Phase 6 in response to the ongoing global spread of 2009 pandemic influenza A (H1N1) virus (pH1N1).1 The 2009 H1N1 influenza pandemic presented a unique opportunity and provided resources to monitor and study influenza in a way that would and could not be supported during a `typical' influenza season. Research objectives included: 1) characterizing the severity of illness among hospitalized patients infected with pH1N1; 2) assessing the utility of hospital discharge data to capture influenza hospitalizations, specifically pH1N1, as compared to this new active surveillance system; and 3) describing pediatric influenza-associated deaths over multiple influenza seasons. We found that infection with pH1N1 among hospitalized persons was not associated severe illness; pH1N1 hospitalizations were accurately captured by influenza-specific International Classification of Disease, Ninth Edition (ICD-9) codes; and that passive provider reporting of pediatric influenza-associated deaths should continue as the gold standard and cannot be replaced by death certificate surveillance.

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