Costs associated with acute respiratory illness and select virus infections in hospitalized children, El Salvador and Panama, 2012-2013.

Background And Objectives: Although acute respiratory illness (ARI) is a leading cause of hospitalization among young children, few data are available about cost of hospitalization in middle-income countries. We estimated direct and indirect costs associated with severe ARI resulting in hospitalization among children aged <10 years in El Salvador and Panama through the societal perspective.

Methods: During 2012 and 2013, we surveyed caregivers of children hospitalized with ARI about their direct medical (i.

Will Participatory Syndromic Surveillance Work in Latin America? Piloting a Mobile Approach to Crowdsource Influenza-Like Illness Data in Guatemala.

Background: In many Latin American countries, official influenza reports are neither timely nor complete, and surveillance of influenza-like illness (ILI) remains thin in consistency and precision. Public participation with mobile technology may offer new ways of identifying nonmedically attended cases and reduce reporting delays, but no published studies to date have assessed the viability of ILI surveillance with mobile tools in Latin America. We implemented and assessed an ILI-tailored mobile health (mHealth) participatory reporting system.