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. 2022 Mar 14;22(1):253.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-022-07225-5.

Human rhinoviruses prevailed among children in the setting of wearing face masks in Shanghai, 2020

Ran Jia  1 , Lijuan Lu  1 , Shu Li  2 , Pengcheng Liu  1 , Menghua Xu  1 , Lingfeng Cao  1 , Liyun Su  1 , Jin Xu  3
Affiliations

Human rhinoviruses prevailed among children in the setting of wearing face masks in Shanghai, 2020

Ran Jia et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: Human rhinovirus (HRV) is the predominant etiological agent of the common cold in children and adults. A recent study showed that the inhibitory effect of face masks on viral shedding of HRV was less prominent than that on other respiratory viruses. Considering that most Chinese people have worn face masks in public area since the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019, we aimed to find out whether HRV prevailed among children in 2020 and demonstrate the details of the epidemiological features of HRV under such a special circumstance.

Methods: We summarized the incidences of various respiratory virus infections in patients who visited the Children's Hospital of Fudan University during 2018-2020, and genotyped HRV positive nasopharyngeal specimens collected from 316 inpatients and 72 outpatients that visited the hospital in 2020.

Results: There was a major prevalence of HRV among children in the latter half of 2020, with a clear seasonality that HRV-As prevailed in summer while HRV-Cs in autumn. HRV-As were more prone to cause severe lower respiratory tract infections (LRTI), while HRV-Cs were closely associated with childhood wheezing. The predominant genotypes were A11, A28, A47, A82, A101, C40 and C43. Notably, A21, A82 and A101 took up larger proportions in severe cases than in non-severe cases.

Conclusions: Our findings described a major prevalence of HRVs among children in 2020, which highlight the unique transmitting pattern of HRV and help to narrow the targets for antiviral strategies.

Keywords: Children; Human rhinovirus; Molecular epidemiology; Respiratory tract infection; Wheezing.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The prevalence of respiratory viruses in all the patients tested for the viruses in the hospital from June 2018 to December 2020. A Total numbers of the patients (including inpatients and outpatients) tested positive for the indicating respiratory viruses and the detection rate of HRVs in the specimens collected from the Children’s Hospital of Fudan University during June 2018 to December 2020 were displayed. The detection rate of HRV was the proportion of the HRV positive patients in the total patients whose nasopharyngeal samples were detected for the viruses in the indicated month. B Proportions of different respiratory virus in 2019 and 2020. HRV human rhinovirus, RSV respiratory syncytial virus, AdV adenovirus, IAV influenza A virus, PIV-3 parainfluenza virus type 1. Others represented for the sum of PIV-1, PIV-2, IBV and human metapneumovirus (MPV)
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Phylogenetic trees of VP4/VP2 gene sequences of HRVs. Phylogenetic trees were generated from manually trimmed 540 bp fragments using the neighbor-joining method and branch supported with 1000 bootstrap iterations using MEGA software. Bootstrap values were shown on tree nodes. Study sequences were identified by accession number. Reference sequences from GenBank were identified by accession number (HRV type) with black dots. Purple branches, HRV-As; Green branches, HRV-Bs; Red branches, HRV-Cs
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
The seasonality of HRV genotypes. A The numbers of patients infected with different HRV species were shown by month from June 2020 to November 2020. B The numbers of patients detected positive for the indicating HRV genotypes were shown by month from June 2020 to November 2020
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
The distribution of HRV genotypes among patients of different ages. A The proportions of HRV species in different age groups from infants to adolescents. B The numbers of patients detected positive for the indicating genotypes were shown by age
Fig. 5
Fig. 5
The diversity of HRV genotypes in patients of different severity. A The monthly distribution of severe LRTI cases in HRV-positive patients. B The percentages of different genotypes in patients of URTI, non-severe LRTI and severe LRTI groups respectively. URTI upper respiratory infection, LRTI lower respiratory infection
Fig. 6
Fig. 6
The Ct values of HRV positive samples. A The patients infected with HRV only or co-infected with other respiratory pathogens were divided into two groups, and their Ct values were acquired based on RT-qPCR. B The Ct values of HRV positive samples collected from patients classified based on their disease severity were shown. C The Ct values of HRV positive samples of different species were shown. P < 0.05 was considered of significant difference
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