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Epidemiological Changes in Respiratory Viral Infections in Children: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic

Background: Viruses are the major cause of acute respiratory infections in children, causing important morbimortality. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, in temperate regions, respiratory viruses displayed a typical seasonality in transmission. A disruption in this pattern was observed in several countri...

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Autores principales: Almeida, Teresa, Guimarães, João Tiago, Rebelo, Sandra
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10537173/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37766285
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v15091880
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author Almeida, Teresa
Guimarães, João Tiago
Rebelo, Sandra
author_facet Almeida, Teresa
Guimarães, João Tiago
Rebelo, Sandra
author_sort Almeida, Teresa
collection PubMed
description Background: Viruses are the major cause of acute respiratory infections in children, causing important morbimortality. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, in temperate regions, respiratory viruses displayed a typical seasonality in transmission. A disruption in this pattern was observed in several countries during the pandemic, with low prevalence during the typical season, and an interseasonal rise. We evaluated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the epidemiology of non-COVID viral respiratory infections in children, in a tertiary care hospital in Portugal. Methods: Between March 2020 and August 2022, nasopharyngeal samples from children with respiratory symptoms in the Emergency Department (ED) and the Pediatric Ward were tested for RSV, influenza and other respiratory viruses, by real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR). Results: A seasonal variation was observed from 2018 to 2020, with prevalence increasing in winter (mainly RSV and influenza). In the winter of 2020/21, when measures to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission were stricter, there was a disruption of the seasonal pattern, with unusually low numbers. In the summer of 2021, when measures were being relaxed, there was an atypical rise. In June 2021, RSV was first detected and peaked in October. Influenza (Influenza A H3) was detected for the first time in February 2022, peaking in March/April. Conclusions: These findings show a disruption of the seasonality of viral respiratory infections in children during the pandemic, with a virtual elimination during the months of usually higher prevalence, and a subsequent out-of-season increase, coinciding with variations in the measures implemented to control the SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and confirming their efficacy.
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spelling pubmed-105371732023-09-29 Epidemiological Changes in Respiratory Viral Infections in Children: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic Almeida, Teresa Guimarães, João Tiago Rebelo, Sandra Viruses Communication Background: Viruses are the major cause of acute respiratory infections in children, causing important morbimortality. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, in temperate regions, respiratory viruses displayed a typical seasonality in transmission. A disruption in this pattern was observed in several countries during the pandemic, with low prevalence during the typical season, and an interseasonal rise. We evaluated the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic in the epidemiology of non-COVID viral respiratory infections in children, in a tertiary care hospital in Portugal. Methods: Between March 2020 and August 2022, nasopharyngeal samples from children with respiratory symptoms in the Emergency Department (ED) and the Pediatric Ward were tested for RSV, influenza and other respiratory viruses, by real-time reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR). Results: A seasonal variation was observed from 2018 to 2020, with prevalence increasing in winter (mainly RSV and influenza). In the winter of 2020/21, when measures to mitigate SARS-CoV-2 transmission were stricter, there was a disruption of the seasonal pattern, with unusually low numbers. In the summer of 2021, when measures were being relaxed, there was an atypical rise. In June 2021, RSV was first detected and peaked in October. Influenza (Influenza A H3) was detected for the first time in February 2022, peaking in March/April. Conclusions: These findings show a disruption of the seasonality of viral respiratory infections in children during the pandemic, with a virtual elimination during the months of usually higher prevalence, and a subsequent out-of-season increase, coinciding with variations in the measures implemented to control the SARS-CoV-2 transmission, and confirming their efficacy. MDPI 2023-09-05 /pmc/articles/PMC10537173/ /pubmed/37766285 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v15091880 Text en © 2023 by the authors. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Communication
Almeida, Teresa
Guimarães, João Tiago
Rebelo, Sandra
Epidemiological Changes in Respiratory Viral Infections in Children: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title Epidemiological Changes in Respiratory Viral Infections in Children: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full Epidemiological Changes in Respiratory Viral Infections in Children: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_fullStr Epidemiological Changes in Respiratory Viral Infections in Children: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_full_unstemmed Epidemiological Changes in Respiratory Viral Infections in Children: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_short Epidemiological Changes in Respiratory Viral Infections in Children: The Influence of the COVID-19 Pandemic
title_sort epidemiological changes in respiratory viral infections in children: the influence of the covid-19 pandemic
topic Communication
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10537173/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/37766285
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/v15091880
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