Information on age was available for 211 (76%) cases, and those patient sranged from 3 days to 94 years of age.The majority of cases (n 134 [64%]) occurred in children less than 5 years of age, with a median of 1 year. The cases (n 275 [99%]) were evenly distributed by gender (males 144 [52%], females 131 [48%]) (data not shown). Information on infection onset was available for 275 (99%) cases and revealed that the number of patients was relatively stable throughout the year,with the exception of July and October,the months that showed the highest(n 49, i.e., 18%) and lowest (n 8, i.e., 3%) occurrences of infections, respectively (Fig. 1)