PLoS ONE (Jan 2022)

Urgent air transfers for acute respiratory infections among children from Northern Canada, 2005-2014.

  • Caitlin Prendergast,
  • Joan Robinson,
  • Chelsea Caya,
  • Maria E Perez Trejo,
  • Iline Guan,
  • Veronica Hébert-Murakami,
  • Justina Marianayagam,
  • Zing-Wae Wong,
  • Celia Walker,
  • David M Goldfarb,
  • Nick Barrowman,
  • Radha Jetty,
  • Joanne Embree,
  • Jesse Papenburg

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0272154
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 17, no. 7
p. e0272154

Abstract

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BackgroundThe incidence of hospitalizations for acute respiratory infections (ARI) among young Indigenous children from Northern Canada is consistently high. ARIs requiring urgent air transfer can be life-threatening and costly. We aimed to describe their epidemiology, estimate age-specific incidences, and explore factors associated with level of care required.MethodsWe undertook a retrospective cohort study of children ResultsAmong 650 urgent air transfers, the majority were from Nunavut (n = 349, 53.7%) or Nunavik (n = 166, 25.5%), InterpretationUrgent air transfers for ARI from Northern Canada are associated with high acuity. Variations in levels of care were seen across referral centers, age groups and pathogens.