Upper Respiratory Tract Infection Trends in a Psychiatric Institute in Singapore.

Infection control strategies of our institute appear to be effective, because the incidence of URTI was lower in our institute than in the community. The similar incidence of URTI in acute and long-stay wards indicates that service-user turnover is not a contributor. Rather, staff and visitors are more likely to be the vector. The larger clusters in long-stay wards indicates a greater risk of transmission in such settings. Increased activity in our institute during school vacations may be associated with an increase in cases in June and December. It is difficult to determine if strategies implemented during the study period successfully reduce the incidence of URTI.