Abstract
Objectives: The aim of this study was to observe the effect of COVID-19 prevention and control measures on the transmission of common respiratory viruses in a pediatric population.Methods: This was a retrospective observational study. The study population was selected from children with respiratory diseases who attended Xiamen Children's Hospital from January 1, 2018 to January 31, 2021. All children were screened for influenza virus, parainfluenza virus, respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), adenovirus, and Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The changes in respiratory virus detection rates before and after the SARS-CoV-2 intervention were analyzed using an interrupted time-series model. Polynomial curve fitting was also used to predict future short-term trends in respiratory virus detection.Results: A total of 56,859 children were seen at Xiamen Children's Hospital from January 1, 2018 to Jan 31, 2021, of which 32,120 were tested for respiratory viruses via pharyngeal swabs. The overall positive detection rates of the four respiratory viral infections decreased significantly (P = 0.0017) after the implementation of the quarantine and school suspension measures in January 2020. Among them, the detection rate of RSV decreased most significantly (P = 0.008), and although there was no statistically significant difference in the detection rates of the influenza virus, parainfluenza virus, and adenovirus, a downward trend in the graph was observed. The positive detection rates of RSV in the 0–1-, 1–3-, and 3–7-year-old groups all decreased significantly (P = 0.035, 0.016, and 0.038, respectively). The change in the positive detection rate of RSV was relatively stable in the 7–18-year-old group. A total of 10,496 samples were tested for SARS-CoV-2, and no positive cases were reported.Conclusions: The combination of preventive and control measures for COVID-19 reduced the detection rate of four common respiratory viruses, with the greatest impact on RSV. If prevention and control measures continue to be maintained, the overall detection rate or absolute number of detections for the four respiratory viruses will remain low in the short term. However, this trend is likely to vary with the changes in measures.
Highlights
Viral respiratory infections are common in children and contribute significantly to hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality; thereby increasing the burden on national healthcare budgets [1,2,3]
From January 1, 2018 to January 31, 2021, a total of 32,120 children (19,203 [59.79%] males and 12,917 [40.21%] females) were tested for respiratory viruses. This accounted for 55.39% of the total number of hospitalized children in Xiamen Children’s Hospital
Consistent with the findings from other studies [7,8,9,10], our study results showed that major viral pathogens causing acute respiratory infection (ARI) in children included respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (9.79%), influenza virus (2.37%), parainfluenza virus (3.28%), and adenovirus (2.70%) in different seasons
Summary
Viral respiratory infections are common in children and contribute significantly to hospitalization, morbidity, and mortality; thereby increasing the burden on national healthcare budgets [1,2,3]. It is important to develop effective prevention strategies. Estimating the annual epidemiological trend of viral respiratory infections would help to guide the development and assessment of prevention efforts and resource planning by health care facilities [4]. Beijing established the National New Coronavirus Prevention Working Group. Measures included blocking city entrances and strictly strengthening community management and personal protection. Data proved that these measures effectively controlled the further spread of the new coronavirus in a short period of time
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