Systematic analysis of infectious disease outcomes by age

All pamphlets and reports in the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine library open shelves and books in the Wellcome collection library open shelves relating to infectious diseases were hand-searched. These include reports from the 19th century onwards. We also searched books and reports available electronically from the United States Public Health Service, US National Library of Medicine Digital Collections, the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, or Google on plague, cholera and yellow fever.

The authors’ literature collection was searched, and relevant references followed (snowball searching). All identified studies that gave information on the age-pattern of severity were included if they satisfied the following criteria: [1] Included children and adults, [2] Data stratified in 10-year age groups or less, [3] At least 100 cases included, [4] Source of data given.