The epidemiology and aetiology of acute respiratory infections seen by GPs in the developed world

ARIs are very common in both adults and children. Only a small proportion of people who get these infections choose to attend, or are taken by their parents, to see their GP. Surveys in different countries have found that only 10-15% of sufferers go to the doctor. However, this small proportion makes diagnosing and managing ARIs a large part of the dayto-day work of the GP. This chapter reviews some of the descriptive work on the epidemiology of ARIs, and considers what we know about their aetiology.