Multicenter analysis of epidemiological and clinical features of pediatric acute lower respiratory tract infections associated with common human coronaviruses in China, 2014–2019

The common human coronaviruses (HCoVs) HCoV-229E, HCoV-OC43, HCoV-NL63, and HCoV-HKU1 which are members of the coronavirus family are long co-existed with humans and widely distributed globally. Common HCoVs usually cause mild, self-limited upper respiratory tract infections (URTI), and also associated with lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), especially in children. However, there are little multicentre studies have been conducted in children of several different areas in China, and the epidemic potential of common HCoVs remains unclear. Understanding of the common HCoVs is valuable for clinical and public health. Herein, we retrospectively analysed the medical records of children with acute lower respiratory tract infection admitted to 9 hospitals from different regions in China from 2014 to 2019. Of the 124 patients who tested positive for coronaviruses, OC43 was the predominant type, accounting for 36.3% (45/124) of the detections. Children aged ≤ 6 months and 12–23 months had the highest detection rate of common HCoVs, and the detection rate gradually declined after 2 years old. These four HCoVs could be detected all year round. Among the areas of our study, the overall positive rate was higher in southern China, especially in Guangzhou (29/124, 23.4%). Moreover, common HCoV-positive patients were codetected with 9 other common respiratory pathogens. 229E (11/13, 84.6%) was the most frequently associated with codetection, with EV/RhV was the most frequently codetected virus. Cough (113/124, 91.1%) and fever (73/124, 58.9%) were the most common symptoms of common HCoVs infection.