No abstract

BackgroundTo study the impact of meteorological data and respiratory viral infections on invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD) rates.MethodsWe analysed all notifications of IPD and respiratory viral infections to the Microbiological Reporting System of Catalonia (2006–2012). Correlations between rates of IPD and viral infections (influenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus [RSV] and adenovirus), and meteorological variables (temperature, humidity, hours of sunshine, wind speed and number of days with rainfall) were assessed using Spearman’s correlation coefficient and negative binomial regression models.ResultsWe found significant correlations between monthly rates of IPD and monthly rates of all respiratory viruses and meteorological factors.However, after multiple regression analysis, associations remained between IPD rates and influenza rates and reductions in temperature in the total population, and between IPD rates and adenovirus rates in children aged <5 years.When models were repeated for the total population using data from the preceding month, IPD rates increased when RSV was circulating and when the temperature was lower. In children aged <5 years, RSV circulation was associated with increased IPD rates.ConclusionsIPD rates were linked to increased activity of some respiratory viruses and reductions in temperature. Preventive measures, including influenza vaccination, may help reduce IPD.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12889-016-3061-6) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

We investigated the incidence and distribution of cases of invasive pneumococcal disease (IPD), invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) and invasive Hemophilus influenzae disease (IHiD) notified by hospital laboratories to the Microbiological Reporting System of Catalonia between 2005 and 2009. Incidence rates were compared using the rate ratio (RR) and 95% CI were calculated. A value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Of the 6,661 cases, 6,012 were IPD, 436 IMD and 213 IHiD. The global annual incidence per 10 ( 5) inhabitants was 16.62 (95% CI 16.20-17.04) for IPD, 1.21 (95% CI 1.09-1.32) for IMD and 0.59 (95% CI 0.51-0.67) for IHiD. IPD increased in 2009 compared with 2005 (RR:1.55, 95%CI: 1.43-1.70) and IMD and IHiD remained stable. Pneumonia was the most-frequent clinical manifestation of IPD (75.6%) and IHiD (44.1%) and meningoencephalitis with or without sepsis for IMD (70.6%). The male:female ratio was 1.37 for IPD, 1.0 for IMD and 1.15 for IHiD. The age groups with the highest incidence were the ≤ 2 y and 2-4 y groups for IPD (66.40 and 50.66/100,000 persons-year) and IMD (14.88 and 7.26/100,000 persons-year) and the ≤ 2 y and ≥ 65 y groups for IHiD (1.88 and 1.89/100,000 persons-year). The most-frequent serotypes were serotype 1 (19.0%) in IPD and untypeable serotypes (60.8%) in IHiD. Serogroup B (78.3%) was the most frequent in IMD. S. pneumoniae is the most-frequent agent causing invasive disease in Catalonia. The main clinical manifestations were pneumonia in IPD and IHiD and meningitis in IMD. The main causative agent of meningitis was N. meningitidis in people aged < 20 y and S. pneumoniae in people aged ≥ 20 y. Vaccination with conjugate vaccines may reduce the risk of infectious disease in our setting.