Abstract
BackgroundMycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is a commonly causative pathogen for respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in humans. The epidemiological features of M. pneumoniae infections during post-epidemic, including age distribution and the seasonality of the patients, are not well investigated.MethodsWe retrospectively analyzed the clinical data of 7835 consecutive RTIs patients (3852 adults and 3983 children) who visited a teaching hospital, and defined an epidemic (2011–2013) and a post-epidemic period (2014–2016). M. pneumoniae was detected by fluorescence-quantatitive PCR in respiratory samples. Informed consent was obtained by all adults and the legal representatives of patients aged < 18 years, and the study was approved by Institutional Review Board of Beijing Chao-Yang Hospital (project approval number 10-KE-49).ResultsThe median (IQR) age was 16 (53) years (range < 0–105 years). The M. pneumoniae positive rate was 14.4% (21.2%, epidemic; 6.7%, post-epidemic), with seasonal peaks from late summer to autumn during epidemic, and from fall to winter during post-epidemic period, which was highest in children aged 7–17 years. In epidemic, no statistical difference was found in the positive rates between children and adults among most months (except February, July and August), neither for the positive rates among age groups (P = 0.801). However, in post-epidemic period, significant differences were observed in the positive rates between children and adults in nearly every month (P< 0.05 or P< 0.001, except May), as well as in the positive rates among age groups (P< 0.001). Most of the older patient admissions and all of ICU admissions occurred during the epidemic.ConclusionsDifferent patterns of age distribution and seasonality of M. pneumoniae RTIs between epidemic and post-epidemic periods were reported. Our results suggest that M. pneumoniae should be considered as a possible pathogen in pneumonia patients admitted to the ICU in the setting of an epidemic.
Highlights
Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is a commonly causative pathogen for respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in humans
The peak infection rates and number of M. pneumoniae positive cases were both noted at the age of 2 to 8 years (Additional file 1: Figure S1); Most of the patients who had M. pneumoniae infections (14.4%, 1127/7835) were children (19.7% vs. 8.9%, P< 0.001) and female (15.7% vs. 13.3%, P = 0.003)
531/1127 (47.1%) and 582/1127 (51.6%) patients with mild and mediate severity were treated as outpatients or in wards, only 14/1127 (1.2%) patients were treated in Respiratory ICU (RICU) and Emergency ICU (EICU) or other ICUs
Summary
Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is a commonly causative pathogen for respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in humans. The epidemiological features of M. pneumoniae infections during post-epidemic, including age distribution and the seasonality of the patients, are not well investigated. Mycoplasma pneumoniae (M. pneumoniae) is a common pathogen of respiratory tract infections (RTIs) in humans, especially in children and young adults [1, 2]. Many investigations have focused on the epidemics, individual cases, and small clusters and outbreaks with various sizes [10, 12,13,14]; epidemiological features of M. pneumoniae infections during post-epidemic or non-epidemic periods, including age distribution, the seasonality and the hospitalization rate of the patients, have not been studied in detail
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