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. 2018 May:102:27-31.
doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2018.02.010. Epub 2018 Feb 20.

Epidemiology and seasonality of acute respiratory infections in hospitalized children over four consecutive years (2012-2016)

Adrien Fillatre  1 , Catherine François  2 , Christine Segard  1 , Gilles Duverlie  2 , Denise Hecquet  1 , Christine Pannier  1 , Catherine Roussel  1 , Patricia Zawadzki  1 , Etienne Brochot  2 , Sandrine Castelain  3
Affiliations

Epidemiology and seasonality of acute respiratory infections in hospitalized children over four consecutive years (2012-2016)

Adrien Fillatre et al. J Clin Virol. 2018 May.

Abstract

Background: Acute respiratory infections are a principal cause of illness and mortality especially in young children worldwide.

Objectives: To study the epidemiology and seasonality of viral respiratory infections in hospitalized children (under the age of 16) between September 2012 and August 2016.

Study design: Nasopharyngeal swabs or aspirates were collected from 3199 symptomatic patients and then screened with a routine multiplex PCR assay.

Results: Respiratory viruses were detected for 1624 (50.8%) of the 3199 children in the study population. Of these, 210 (13.3%) were positive for two viruses, 28 (1.7%) were positive for three, and 3 (0.2%) were positive for four. The viral profile varied with age. Some viruses were significantly more frequent in children under the age of 1 month (such as human respiratory syncytial virus (p < 0.0001)), whereas others were significantly more frequent in children over that age (such as influenza viruses (p < 0.0001) and adenoviruses (p = .0006)). The distribution of viruses is variable over the year depending on the species. However, the atmospheric temperature was rarely found to be a limiting factor in the circulation of respiratory viruses.

Conclusions: our results constitute a detailed description of the distribution of respiratory viruses among hospitalized children over four consecutive years. Our data notably highlight the persistence of non-enveloped viruses and some enveloped viruses throughout the year-regardless of temperature variations.

Keywords: Children; Coinfection; Epidemiology; Respiratory viruses; Seasons.

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Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
A schematic representation of the frequency of viruses detected in co-infections, expressed as a percentage of the 210 documented co-infections. The degree of shading corresponds to the frequency of each co-infection. Note that the data are mirrored about the diagonal. Abbreviations: Inf: influenzavirus; hRSV: human respiratory syncytial virus; hMPV: human metapneumovirus; EV&hRV: enterovirus/rhinovirus; PIV: parainfluenzaviruses; AdV: adenoviruses; hBoV: human bocavirus; hCoV: human coronaviruses
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Circulation of respiratory viruses over the four seasons, as a function of the month's mean atmospheric temperature. The bars represent the number of positive cases (left y axis). The dashed grey line represents the month's mean atmospheric temperature degree in degree Celsius, °C (right y axis). Abbreviations: Inf: influenzavirus; hRSV: human respiratory syncytial virus; hMPV: human metapneumovirus; EV&hRV: enterovirus/rhinovirus; PIV: parainfluenzaviruses; AdV: adenoviruses; hBoV: human bocavirus; hCoV: human coronaviruses
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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