Article,
A cluster of meningococcal disease on a school bus following epidemic influenza
Archives of Internal Medicine, 151 (5): 1005--1009 (May 1991)PMID: 2025124.
Abstract
An outbreak of meningococcal disease among children on a school bus offered the opportunity to study a proposed association between this infection and preceding influenza infection. Five students who rode the bus became ill with invasive group C meningococcus. Transmission was limited to the bus; there was no evidence for school transmission. All five students reported influenza-like symptoms within several weeks before the development of meningococcal disease. School absenteeism, principally due to upper respiratory tract illness, was higher during the 3 weeks before the outbreak of meningococcal disease than during any period in the preceding 3 1/2 years, suggesting an unusually severe outbreak of respiratory illness. A case-control study comparing students with and without influenza symptoms revealed that the outbreak of respiratory disease was due to B/Ann Arbor/1/86 influenza (geometric mean titers, 86 for 80 patients and 33 for 47 controls P = .0007). These data add to the evidence suggesting that influenza respiratory infection predisposes to meningococcal disease.
Tags
- absenteeism,
- adolescent,
- child,
- disease
- factors,
- human,
- humans,
- incidence,
- infections,
- influenza,
- meningococcal
- outbreaks,
- risk
- studies,
- transportation,
- virginia
- {case-control}
