Epidemiology of Acute Respiratory Infections in Children in Guangzhou: A Three-Year Study

Acute Respiratory Infections (ARI) are some of the most common human diseases worldwide. However, they have a complex and diverse etiology, and the characteristics of the pathogens involved in respiratory infections in developing countries are not well understood. In this work, we analyzed the characteristics of 17 common respiratory pathogens in children (≤14 years old) with ARI in Guangzhou, southern China over a 3-year period using real-time polymerase chain reaction. Pathogens were identified in 2361/4242 (55.7%) patients, and the positivity rate varied seasonally. Ten of the 17 pathogens investigated showed positivity rates of more than 5%. The most frequently detected pathogens were respiratory syncytial virus (768/2361, 32.5%), influenza A virus (428/2361, 18.1%), enterovirus (138/2361, 13.3%), Mycoplasma pneumoniae (267/2361, 11.3%) and adenovirus (213/2361, 9.0%). Co-pathogens were common and found in 503 of 2361 (21.3%) positive samples. When ranked according to frequency of occurrence, the pattern of co-pathogens was similar to that of the primary pathogens, with the exception of human bocavirus, human coronavirus and human metapneumovirus. Significant differences were found in age prevalence in 10 of the 17 pathogens (p≤0.009): four basic patterns were observed, A: detection rates increased with age, B: detection rates declined with age, C: the detection rate showed distinct peaks or D: numbers of patients were too low to detect a trend or showed no significant difference among age groups (p>0.05). These data will be useful for planning vaccine research and control strategies and for studies predicting pathogen prevalence.     

Aetiology of Acute Respiratory Tract Infections in Hospitalised Children in Cyprus

In order to improve clinical management and prevention of viral infections in hospitalised children improved etiological insight is needed. The aim of the present study was to assess the spectrum of respiratory viral pathogens in children admitted to hospital with acute respiratory tract infections in Cyprus. For this purpose nasopharyngeal swab samples from 424 children less than 12 years of age with acute respiratory tract infections were collected over three epidemic seasons and were analysed for the presence of the most common 15 respiratory viruses. A viral pathogen was identified in 86% of the samples, with multiple infections being observed in almost 20% of the samples. The most frequently detected viruses were RSV (30.4%) and Rhinovirus (27.4%). RSV exhibited a clear seasonality with marked peaks in January/February, while rhinovirus infections did not exhibit a pronounced seasonality being detected almost throughout the year. While RSV and PIV3 incidence decreased significantly with age, the opposite was observed for influenza A and B as well as adenovirus infections. The data presented expand our understanding of the epidemiology of viral respiratory tract infections in Cypriot children and will be helpful to the clinicians and researchers interested in the treatment and control of viral respiratory tract infections.     

Acute Respiratory Infections in Children: I. An Intensive Study of Etiology in an Open Community

During a seven-month period from November 1960 to May 1961, 181 infants and children, hospitalized because of acute respiratory infections, were studied intensively to determine the responsible etiologic agents. Forty-two per cent of the illnesses in this group appeared to be caused by bacterial agents, either primary or secondary to virus. Parainfluenza viruses were identified as causes of laryngotracheobronchitis in nearly 50% of the cases. Adenoviruses were also found to be important pathogens, particularly as causes of pneumonia in infants. The over-all infection rate attributed to adenoviruses was 11.6%. An epidemic due to Influenza B virus affected approximately 40% of children in this city just following the hospital study. This study was conducted as the first step in a long-term project undertaken at the Regina General Hospital to determine the effectiveness of vaccines in the prevention and treatment of respiratory infections in children.     

Rubella Vaccine Trial in Children

A study with RA 27/3 attenuated rubella virus vaccine (Plotkin strain) showed that this produced a significant antibody response in all of twenty-one vaccinated non-immune children without any appreciable marked clinical reactions. Serological examination of 53 non-immune and 29 immune siblings living in the same households failed to show any evidence of transmission of infection.     

呼吸道合胞病毒疫苗研究进展

呼吸道合胞病毒(RSV)是引起严重下呼吸道感染的重要病原体,尽管经历了半个多世纪的努力,至今仍未有安全有效的RSV疫苗上市。近年来在RSV F蛋白结构生物学方面的研究进展为新一代RSV疫苗的开发提供了新方向,同时更多的采用不同技术、或针对不同人群的RSV侯选疫苗也在迅速发展,尤其是针对婴幼儿及老年人的RSV侯选苗已有60多种在研究中,大部分已处于临床前研究阶段,18种侯选苗已进入临床试验。我们简要介绍RSV疫苗的最新研究进展。     

A multi-center study on Molecular Epidemiology of Human Respiratory Syncytial Virus from Children with Acute Lower Respiratory Tract Infections in the Mainland of China between 2015 and 2019

Virologica Sinica - Human respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major pathogen of acute lower respiratory tract infection among young children. To investigate the prevalence and genetic...     

Viral Etiology and Clinical Profiles of Children with Severe Acute Respiratory Infections in China

Background

No comprehensive analysis is available on the viral etiology and clinical characterization among children with severe acute respiratory infection (SARI) in China during 2009 H1N1 pandemic and post-pandemic period.

Methods

Cohort of 370 hospitalized children (1 to 72 months) with SARI from May 2008 to March 2010 was enrolled in this study. Nasopharyngeal aspirate (NPA) specimens were tested by a commercial assay for 18 respiratory viral targets. The viral distribution and its association with clinical character were statistically analyzed.

Results

Viral pathogen was detected in 350 (94.29%) of children with SARI. Overall, the most popular viruses were: enterovirus/rhinovirus (EV/RV) (54.05%), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) (51.08%), human bocavirus (BoCA) (33.78%), human parainfluenzaviruse type 3 (PIV3) (15.41%), and adenovirus (ADV) (12.97%). Pandemic H1N1 was the dominant influenza virus (IFV) but was only detected in 20 (5.41%) of children. Moreover, detection rate of RSV and human metapneumovirus (hMPV) among suburb participants were significantly higher than that of urban area (P<0.05). Incidence of VSARI among suburb participants was also significant higher, especially among those of 24 to 59 months group (P<0.05).

Conclusion

Piconaviruses (EV/RV) and paramyxoviruses are the most popular viral pathogens among children with SARI in this study. RSV and hMPV significantly increase the risk of SARI, especially in children younger than 24 months. Higher incidence of VSARI and more susceptibilities to RSV and hMPV infections were found in suburban patients.     

Cooking and Season as Risk Factors for Acute Lower Respiratory Infections in African Children: A Cross-Sectional Multi-Country Analysis

Background

Acute lower respiratory infections (ALRI) are a leading cause of death among African children under five. A significant proportion of these are attributable to household air pollution from solid fuel use.

Methods

We assessed the relationship between cooking practices and ALRI in pooled datasets of Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2000 and 2011 in countries of sub-Saharan Africa. The impacts of main cooking fuel, cooking location and stove ventilation were examined in 18 (n = 56,437), 9 (n = 23,139) and 6 countries (n = 14,561) respectively. We used a causal diagram and multivariable logistic mixed models to assess the influence of covariates at individual, regional and national levels.

Results

Main cooking fuel had a statistically significant impact on ALRI risk (p<0.0001), with season acting as an effect modifier (p = 0.034). During the rainy season, relative to clean fuels, the odds of suffering from ALRI were raised for kerosene (OR 1.64; CI: 0.99, 2.71), coal and charcoal (OR 1.54; CI: 1.21, 1.97), wood (OR 1.20; CI: 0.95, 1.51) and lower-grade biomass fuels (OR 1.49; CI: 0.93, 2.35). In contrast, during the dry season the corresponding odds were reduced for kerosene (OR 1.23; CI: 0.77, 1.95), coal and charcoal (OR 1.35; CI: 1.06, 1.72) and lower-grade biomass fuels (OR 1.07; CI: 0.69, 1.66) but increased for wood (OR 1.32; CI: 1.04, 1.66). Cooking location also emerged as a season-dependent statistically significant (p = 0.0070) determinant of ALRI, in particular cooking indoors without a separate kitchen during the rainy season (OR 1.80; CI: 1.30, 2.50). Due to infrequent use in Africa we could, however, not demonstrate an effect of stove ventilation.

Conclusions

We found differential and season-dependent risks for different types of solid fuels and kerosene as well as cooking location on child ALRI. Future household air pollution studies should consider potential effect modification of cooking fuel by season.