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. 2024 Apr 23;4(4):491-495.
doi: 10.1016/j.jointm.2024.02.005. eCollection 2024 Oct.

Comparative study on the incidence of non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: A retrospective analysis based on respiratory non-COVID viral nucleic acid results

Xiaojiao Tan  1 , Zheng Zhang  1 , Huan Zhang  1 , Jianbo Li  1 , Xuewei Yang  1 , Lijie Wang  1 , Xuelian Liao  1   2
Affiliations

Comparative study on the incidence of non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia before and after the COVID-19 pandemic: A retrospective analysis based on respiratory non-COVID viral nucleic acid results

Xiaojiao Tan et al. J Intensive Med. .

Abstract

Background: The impact of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the etiology of non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia remains to be identified. We investigated the evolution of non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia in hospitalized patients before and after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods: This is a single-center retrospective study. Patients who came to West China Hospital of Sichuan University diagnosed with non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia from January 1, 2016 to December 31, 2021, were included and divided into pre- and post-COVID-19 groups according to the date of the COVID-19 outbreak in China. The results of 13 viral nucleic acid tests were compared between the two groups.

Results: A total of 5937 patients (3954 in the pre-COVID-19 group and 1983 in the post-COVID-19 group) were analyzed. Compared with the pre-COVID-19 group, the proportion of patients tested for respiratory non-COVID-19 viral nucleic acid was significantly increased in the post-COVID-19 group (14.78% vs. 22.79%, P <0.05). However, the non-COVID-19 virus-positive rates decreased from 37.9% to 14.6% after the COVID-19 outbreak (P < 0.001). Notably, non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia caused by the influenza A virus H1N1 (InfAH1N1) (2009) dropped to 0% after the pandemic. The top three viruses were InfAH1N1 (2009) (13.9%), human rhinovirus (7.4%), and human adenovirus (3.4%) in the pre-COVID-19 group, and human rhinovirus (3.8%), human respiratory syncytial virus (2.0%), human parainfluenza virus (1.1%) and InfAH3N2 (1.1%) in the post-COVID-19 group.

Conclusions: The proportion of non-COVID-19 viral pneumonia decreased significantly after the COVID-19 outbreak, among which InfAH1N1 (2009) pneumonia decreased the most dramatically.

Keywords: COVID-19; Influenza virus, H1N1; Virus nucleic acid.

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Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Research flowchart. COVID-19: Coronavirus disease-2019.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Positive virus screening of each virus before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Pre-COVID-19: from January 1, 2016, to December 8, 2019; post-COVID-19: from December 9, 2019, to December 31, 2021. Boca: Bocavirus; Ch: Chlamydia; COVID-19: Coronavirus disease-2019; HADV: Human adenovirus; HCOV: Human coronavirus; HMPV: Human metapneumovirus; HPIV: Human parainfluenza virus; HRSV: Human respiratory syncytial virus; HRV: Human rhinovirus; InfA: Influenza A virus; InfAH1N1: Influenza A virus H1N1; InfAH3N2: Seasonal influenza virus H3N2; InfB: Influenza B virus; MP: Mycoplasma pneumonia.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Positive Virus and Influenza virus A/B of screening changes by years and quarters. COVID-19: Coronavirus disease-2019; First quarter: January–March; Second quarter: April–June; Third quarter: July–September; Fourth quarter: October–December.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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