Patrones estacionales de enfermedades infecciosas: similitud y distancias / Seasonal patterns of infectious diseases

ABSTRACT

Material and methods: Series of monthly cases of measles, whooping cough, scarlet fever; meningitis, diphteria, typhoid fever and poliomyelitis were obtained from yearly reports of infectious disease of the Ministry of Health. Descriptive statistical parameters and multivariate methods were used to analyze data. Results: Diseases that have an enteric mode of transmission predominate in summer; independent of the type of agent (viral or bacterial) or presence of carriers. Diseases with a respiratory mode of transmission have two different patterns. Those without carriers (measles and whooping cough) predominate in spring and those with carriers (scarlet fever, diphtheria and meningitis) have a winter predominace. Conclusions: This work confirms the seasonal variation of enteric and respiratory infectious diseases and defines patterns that can be useful for future studies