Preterm birth and detection of common respiratory pathogens among pediatric pneumonia

Pneumonia complicated by preterm birth is related to adverse clinical sequelae from the neonatal period to childhood. Children with pneumonia during 2009–2021 were enrolled at the Children’s Hospital of Chongqing Medical University. Altogether 20 respiratory pathogens were detected and compared. Among 8,206 children, 779 were in the preterm group with 246 of early-preterm and 533 of late preterm. The positive rates for all viral pathogens were comparable between the preterm group and the full-term group. For bacterial pathogens, higher positive rates for Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumoniae were observed in the preterm group. Severe pneumonia developed in 16.52% of all, which was higher in the preterm group than in the full-term group. A significantly higher rate of severe pneumonia was observed in the early-preterm group compared to the late-preterm group. Preterm birth has an impact on the detection of bacterial pathogens in children and is a risk factor for severe pneumonia.