First study in Chile that describes the frequency of exclusive breastfeeding at 6 months of age in children with DS, which shows a large rate of exclusively breastfeeding in the studied sample. The adequate support and education in breastfeeding could allow to achieve a better rate of exclusive breastfeeding in this vulnerable group.

BackgroundInfluenza is a vaccine preventable disease that causes important morbidity and mortality worldwide. Estimating the burden of influenza disease is difficult. However, there are some methods based in surveillance data and laboratory testing that can be used for this purpose.ObjectivesEstimating the burden of serious illness from influenza by means of hospitalization and death records during the period between 2012 and 2014, and using information from Severe Acute Respiratory Illness (SARI) surveillance.MethodsTo estimate the Chilean rate of influenza‐associated hospitalizations and deaths, we applied the influenza positivity of respiratory samples tested in six SARI surveillance sentinel hospitals to the hospitalizations and deaths from the records with ICD‐10 codes from influenza and pneumonia.ResultsAnnually, 5320 people are hospitalized for influenza and 447 die for this cause. The annual influenza‐associated hospitalization rate for the period was 71.5/100 000 person‐year for <5 years old, 11.8/100 000 person‐year for people between 5 and 64 years old; and 156.0/100 000 person‐year for ≥65 years. The annual mortality rate for the period was 0.08/100 000 person‐year for <5 years; 0.3/100 000 person‐year for people between 5 and 64 years; and 22.8/100 000 person‐year for ≥65 years.ConclusionsThis is the first study of influenza burden in Chile. Every year an important quantity of hospitalizations and deaths result from influenza infection. In countries in temperate zones, it is important to know the burden of influenza in order to prepare the health care network and to assess preventive intervention currently in practice and the new ones to implementing.

BackgroundIn 2013, the Pan American Health Organization established a multi-site, multi-country network to evaluate influenza vaccine effectiveness (VE). We pooled data from five consecutive seasons in five countries to conduct an analysis of southern hemisphere VE against laboratory-confirmed influenza hospitalizations in young children and older adults.MethodsWe used a test-negative design to estimate VE against laboratory-confirmed influenza in hospitalized young children (aged 6─24 months) and older adults (aged ≥60 years) in Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, and Paraguay. Following country-specific influenza surveillance protocol, hospitalized persons with severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) at 48 sentinel hospitals (March 2013–December 2017) were tested for influenza virus infection by rRT-PCR. VE was estimated for young children and older adults using logistic random effects models accounting for cluster (country), adjusting for sex, age (months for children, and age-in-year categories for adults), calendar year, country, preexisting conditions, month of illness onset and prior vaccination as an effect modifier for the analysis in adults.ResultsWe included 8426 SARI cases (2389 children and 6037 adults) in the VE analyses. Among young children, VE against SARI hospitalization associated with any influenza virus was 43% (95%CI: 33%, 51%) for children who received two doses, but was 20% (95%CI: −16%, 45%) and not statistically significant for those who received one dose in a given season. Among older adults, overall VE against SARI hospitalization associated with any influenza virus was 41% (95%CI: 28%, 52%), 45% (95%CI: 34%, 53%) against A(H3N2), 40% (95%CI: 18%, 56%) against A(H1N1)pdm09, and 20% (95%CI: −40%, 54%) against influenza B viruses.ConclusionsOur results suggest that over the five-year study period, influenza vaccination programs in five South American countries prevented more than one-third of laboratory confirmed influenza-associated hospitalizations in young children receiving the recommended two doses and vaccinated older adults.

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Coxiella burnetii is an intracellular bacterium and the cause of the zoonotic infection, Q fever. National surveillance data on C. burnetii seroprevalence is currently not available for any South American country, making efforts of public health to implement strategies to mitigate infections in different at-risk groups within the population extremely challenging. In the current study, we used two commercial anti-C. burnetii immunoassays to screen sera collected from a sample of the Chilean population as part of a 2016–2017 national health survey (n = 5166), nationwide and age-standardized. The seroprevalence for C. burnetii for persons ≥ 15 years was estimated to be 3.0% (95% CI 2.2–4.0), a level similar to national surveys from The Netherlands (2.4%) and USA (3.1%), but lower than Australia (5.6%). A linear increase of C. burnetii seropositivity was associated with an individual’s age, with the peak seroprevalence 5.6% (95% CI 3.6–8.6) observed in the ≥65 years’ group. C. burnetii seropositivity was significantly higher in the southern macro-zone 6.0% (95% CI 3.3–10.6) compared to metropolitan region 1.8% (95% CI 0.9–3.3), the former region being home to significant livestock industries, particularly dairy farming. These data will be useful to inform targeted strategies for the prevention of Q fever in at-risk populations in Chile.