Changes in endemic patterns of respiratory syncytial virus infection in pediatric patients under the pressure of nonpharmaceutical interventions for COVID‐19 in Beijing, China

alexandrossfakianakis shared this article with you from Inoreader Changes in endemic patterns of respiratory syncytial virus infection in pediatric patients under the pressure of nonpharmaceutical interventions for COVID‐19 in Beijing, China via Journal of Medical Virology Abstract Background A series of nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) was launched in Beijing, China, on January 24, 2020, to control coronavirus disease 2019. Methods To reveal the roles of NPIs on respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), respiratory specimens collected from children with acute respiratory tract infection during Jul 2017 and Dec 2021 in Beijing were screened by CEMP assay. Specimens positive for RSV were subjected to PCR and genotyped by G gene sequencing and phylogenetic analysis using iqtree v1.6.12. The paraFix mutations were analyzed with the R package sitePath. Clinical data were compared using SPSS 22.0 software. Results Before NPIs launched, each RSV endemic season started from Oct/Nov to Feb/Mar of the next year in Beijing. After that, the RSV positive rate abruptly dropped from 31.93% in Jan to 4.39% in Feb 2020; then, a dormant state with RSV positive rates ≤1% from Mar to Sep, a nearly dormant state in Oct (2.85%) and Nov (2.98%) and a delayed endemic season in 2020, and abnormal RSV positive rates remaining at approximately 10% in summer until Sep 2021 were detected. Finally, an endemic RSV season returned from Oct 2021. There was a game between subtypes A and B, and RSV-A replaced RSV-B in July 2021 to become the dominant subtype. Six RSV-A and 8 RSV-B paraFix (parallel and fixed) mutations were identified on G. The percentage of severe pneumonia patients decreased to 40.51% after NPIs launched. Conclusions NPIs launched in Beijing seriously interfered with the endemic season of RSV. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. View on Web

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