Epidemiological characteristics of respiratory viruses in children during the COVID-19 epidemic in Chengdu, China

Abstract

The purpose of this retrospective study was to analyze the prevalence of respiratory viruses among children with acute respiratory tract infections (ARTIs) during the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic (1 March 2020–28 February 2022). This study investigated respiratory viral specimens from children with ARTIs. A total of 7,092 children (<14 years) with ARTIs were included in this study, with a boy-to-girl ratio of 1.43. The median age was 1 year and 5 months. The average age of the patients was 2.7 ± 3.1 years. Patients < 3 years of age were the main population with ARTIs (67%). The predominant viruses were respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (10.1%) and influenza virus (A and B 9.7%) during the 2 years of the pandemic (1 March 2020–28 February 2022). The proportion of positive viral test results among patients with ARTIs < 6 years of age was higher than that among patients with ARTIs aged 6–14 years (17.3% vs. 5.7%, P < 0.01). RSV infections were more common among patients < 3 years of age ( P < 0.01). Influenza A infections were more common among patients aged 3–6 years ( P < 0.01). Influenza B infections were more common among patients aged 6–14 years ( P < 0.01). The positive proportion among boys was higher than that among girls (14.4% vs. 8.6%, P < 0.01). Peak virus infections occurred in the autumn and winter seasons, and the lowest activity level occurred in the spring and summer of the 2 years. Compared with that before the epidemic, the number of samples and positive proportion of respiratory viruses decreased significantly. During the coronavirus disease 2019 epidemic, the Chinese government launched and used a series of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs), including banning social gatherings, wearing face masks, home isolation, and maintaining hand hygiene, to control the disease spread. Whether and how NPIs influence other respiratory viruses in children remain unclear. In this article, we analyzed relative data and found that the number of samples and positive proportion of respiratory viruses decreased significantly compared with that before the epidemic. Clinicians and public health policymakers should pay attention to changes in the epidemic trends and types of respiratory viruses and maintain monitoring of respiratory-related viruses to avoid possible abnormal rebounds and epidemic outbreaks of these viruses.