This article is more than 5 years old. Information may no longer be current.

Black infants at increased risk for invasive Salmonella infections, hospitalizations

Add topic to email alerts

Receive an email when new articles are posted on

Please provide your email address to receive an email when new articles are posted on .

Subscribe

Added to email alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

You've successfully added to your alerts. You will receive an email when new content is published.

Click Here to Manage Email Alerts

Back to Healio

We were unable to process your request. Please try again later. If you continue to have this issue please contact customerservice@slackinc.com.

Back to Healio

VANCOUVER — When compared with white or Asian infants, black infants were at greater risk for Salmonella infection, as well as for having a more invasive form of infection and associated hospitalizations, according to new findings presented here.

Lay Har Cheng, MD, MSPH, and colleagues from Emory University School of Medicine, pooled data on Salmonella infections between 1996 and 2008 from the FoodNet active surveillance in infants younger than 1 year. Incidence rates, invasive disease and hospitalization rates were compared among ethnic groups.

Researchers identified 6,179 infant cases of Salmonella infection with available information on ethnicity. Of these cases, 61% were white, 30% were black, 6% were Asian and 4% were of another race.

Compared with the average annual incidence rate per 100,000 among white (84.1) or Asian infants (114.3), black infants had the highest rate (162.7; P<.001). In addition, the average annual incidence rate for invasive infection was highest among black infants (15.1 vs. 7.5 for Asian infants and 3.0 for white infants; P<.001).

A greater form of invasive disease (9% vs. 4%) and increased hospitalizations (35% vs. 29%) were predominantly found in black infants when compared with white infants. “[Black infants] were much more likely to have a severe infection,” said Patricia N. Griffin, MD, who presented Cheng’s findings at the press conference. “Those infections often [progressed to be ]Salmonella in the blood or Salmonella that got into the fluid that surrounds the brain and caused meningitis that way.”

Although Asian infants had a higher proportion of invasive disease vs. white infants (7% vs. 4%; P=.008), white infants had a higher hospitalization rate (16% vs. 29%, respectively; P<.001).

The researchers concluded that, “Differential rates of exposure to Salmonella could explain varying incidence but not differences in the proportion of infants with invasive disease.” – by Jennifer Southall

For more information:

• Cheng LH. #530. Presented at: the IDSA 48th Annual Meeting; Oct. 21-24, 2010; Vancouver, B.C.