Study of spatial location of community acquired respiratory infections in hospitalized infants

• Grant number: 14/06162-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: September 01, 2014
• End date: August 31, 2015
• Field of knowledge: Health Sciences - Medicine - Maternal and Child Health
• Principal Investigator: Sandra Elisabete Vieira
• Grantee: Ana Carolina Aguiar Kuhne
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Medicina (FM). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The infections caused by respiratory virus infections are among the major morbidities of infants. The geographical analysis of the occurrence of these infections may provide important information for a targeted approach to prevention of acquisition . The Geocoding system allows visualization of areas of risk in the spread of a disease and patterns of progression, allowing establishment of interventions and prophylactic strategies. The present study intends to analyze the geographical distribution of possible locations for acquisition (as residences and nurseries) of RSV infections. A retrospective study will be performed including children under 12 months of age with acute respiratory disease that were hospitalized in HU - USP between February and August 2013 with identification of respiratory viruses in nasopharyngeal aspirate. Those with hospitalizations or trips in the last seven days will be excluded. Clinical and demographic data will be collected from medical records. The addresses are geocoded into spatial coordinates of latitude and longitude using GPS ( Global Position System). The cartographic database and computational routines geocoding will be provided by Google Maps ®. Only postal data (street, number, postal code, city, state and country) will be sent to the Google server geocoding ( www.google.com.br ) during systemic communication, thus ensuring the confidentiality of patient information . The results are intended to contribute to the understanding of the distribution of cases within the territory covered by the University Hospital - USP and to identify possible outbreaks and transmission characteristics of the virus within the community attended by the service and could serve as a model to be easily applied to other services.