Frequency and Characteristics of Common Infectious Disease Among Children Under 5 Years old Presenting at Giza Family Health Center During 2013

Abstract

Communicable disease epidemiology closely linked to many factors as, environmental, social, economic factors, as well as the state of country development. This descriptive study was conducted in Giza primary health care center (Giza FHC) to determine the frequency of common infectious disease and study the seasonal variation and its different characteristics among children under 5 years old during the year 2013. The variables included in this study were age, gender, seasonal variations, number of siblings, PHC area, breastfeeding and family socio-demographic data. The ratio of infectious diseases in the present study comprised 90% of the total records of diseased diagnosing of children under 5 years in the family health care center. The most prevalent types of infectious diseases in recent study were upper respiratory tract infections (29.5%) and Oro-pharyngeal diseases (19.7%) followed by skin infections (12.7%). Also had been found that a significant difference between the percentage of infectious diseases and the child age especially in vaccine preventable diseases, Oro-pharyngeal diseases and children with urinary tract infections. In addition, the gender significantly affects the distribution of infectious diseases including UTI, GE, parasitic diseases, Oro-pharyngeal diseases among females and vaccine preventable diseases and skin infection among males. The prevalence of infectious diseases among children by seasons of the year was the highest in winter 39.7% followed by autumn 27.2%. The area of the PHC, breast feeding and the number of siblings in family vary greatly and affect the prevalence of some infectious diseases in children less than 5 years. Parental employment, income and particularly work status of the mother have been found to be associated with the occurrence of infectious diseases in childhood. Also, the parents with higher level of education had children with fewer infectious diseases compared with parents with less education. Moreover, in children with co-morbid conditions, there was a higher percentage of pneumonia, Oro-pharyngeal diseases and UTI infections. Also, children living in indoor with no enough ports for ventilation were more venerable to pneumonia and upper respiratory tract infections.