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. 2025 Jul 15;51(1):227.
doi: 10.1186/s13052-025-02069-6.

The epidemic trend of rhinovirus in children from 2013 to 2023: a large sample study in China

Ting Shi #  1 , Yiwen Ni #  1 , Weiming Li  2 , Linlin Huang  3
Affiliations

The epidemic trend of rhinovirus in children from 2013 to 2023: a large sample study in China

Ting Shi et al. Ital J Pediatr. .

Abstract

Background: This study described the prevalence trend of human rhinovirus(HRV) in children with acute respiratory infections(ARIs), which can warn people to interfere in advance and prevent the spread of rhinovirus.

Methods: We retrospectively collected the data on sex, age, admission time, discharge diagnosis and HRV reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay result of inpatients at Children's Hospital of Soochow University from 2010 to 2023.

Results: There are 77,062 patients were enrolled, including 44,564 males (57.8%) and 32,498 females (42.2%). The positive rate of HRV during pre-, during- and post abolition-NPIs periods was 13.1%(5473/41875), 18.5%(3843/20800) and 21.0%(3031/14398), respectively. It was significant that the positive rate of HRV was gradually increasing with time(P<0.05). By multivariate regression analysis HRV prevalence were more common in male than female over all periods(P<0.05). HRV were more common in ≤ 1 year group than other age groups in pre-NPIs period (P<0.05). In during-NPIs and post-NPIs periods, HRV was more likely to occur in the 3-≤6 years groups. The seasonal trend of HRV showed a double peak each year, but the peak of it was advanced by one month in post-NPIs period.

Conclusions: Although the NPIs could not effectively prevent the spread of HRV, it changed the age and seasonal epidemic pattern of HRV in children.

Keywords: Children; Epidemiology; NPIs; Rhinovirus.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Ethics approval and consent to participate: This study adheres to the ethical principles of the Declaration of Helsinki. It was approved by the Ethics Committee of Children’s Hospital of Soochow University (No.2024CS058). For the presented retrospective data, the requirement to obtain informed consent was waived in accordance with the vote of the Ethics Committee. Consent for publication: Not applicable. Conflict of interest: No potential conflicts of interest relevant to this article were reported.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
The number of participants and positive rate of HRV from January 2013 to December 2023
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
The monthly number and positive rate of HRV from January 2013 to December 2023
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Comparing the monthy number and positive rate of HRV in pre-NPIs, during-NPIs and post-NPIs periods. Green line: mean(2013–2019), green shade: 95% confidence interval (2013–2019), purple line: median(2020–2022), green shade: minimum to maximum, red line: absolute number per month in 2023. (A) Total number of participants per month; (B) Number of positive HRV assay per month; (C) Positive rate of HRV per month
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