Aim: Emergency room admissions have decreased globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for respiratory diseases. We evaluated hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in the first year of the Italian pandemic and compared them to the corresponding period in 2016-2017. Methods: The study was carried out at the Sapienza University in Rome, Italy, and covered 9 March to 28 February 2020-2021 and 2016-2017. We tested 85 hospitalised children who were negative for the virus that causes COVID-19 in 2020-2021 and compared them with 476 hospitalised children from 2016-2017, as we had also tested nasal washing samples for 14 respiratory viruses during that period. Results: Hospitalisations for acute respiratory tract infections were 82.2% lower in 2020-2021 than 2016-2017. The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and several other viruses were detected less frequently during the pandemic. An extraordinary finding was that rhinoviruses remained seasonal. In 2020-21, we detected a virus in 54.1% of the hospitalised children: rhinoviruses in 41, RSV in 4 and other viruses in 1. This was significantly lower than the 71.6% in 2016-17: RSV in 130, rhinoviruses in 128 and other viruses in 83. Conclusion: Pandemic measures dramatically reduced childhood respiratory infections, particularly RSV, but were less effective at reducing rhinoviruses.

The first COVID-19 lockdown resulted in most respiratory viruses disappearing among hospitalised children, with the exception of rhinoviruses / Nenna, Raffaella; Matera, Luigi; Pierangeli, Alessandra; Oliveto, Giuseppe; Viscido, Agnese; Petrarca, Laura; La Regina, Domenico Paolo; Mancino, Enrica; Di Mattia, Greta; Villani, Alberto; Midulla, Fabio. - In: ACTA PAEDIATRICA. - ISSN 0803-5253. - (2022). [10.1111/apa.16326]

The first COVID-19 lockdown resulted in most respiratory viruses disappearing among hospitalised children, with the exception of rhinoviruses

Nenna, Raffaella;Matera, Luigi;Pierangeli, Alessandra;Oliveto, Giuseppe;Viscido, Agnese;Petrarca, Laura;Mancino, Enrica;Di Mattia, Greta;Villani, Alberto;Midulla, Fabio
2022

Abstract

Aim: Emergency room admissions have decreased globally during the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly for respiratory diseases. We evaluated hospital admissions for respiratory diseases in the first year of the Italian pandemic and compared them to the corresponding period in 2016-2017. Methods: The study was carried out at the Sapienza University in Rome, Italy, and covered 9 March to 28 February 2020-2021 and 2016-2017. We tested 85 hospitalised children who were negative for the virus that causes COVID-19 in 2020-2021 and compared them with 476 hospitalised children from 2016-2017, as we had also tested nasal washing samples for 14 respiratory viruses during that period. Results: Hospitalisations for acute respiratory tract infections were 82.2% lower in 2020-2021 than 2016-2017. The respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) and several other viruses were detected less frequently during the pandemic. An extraordinary finding was that rhinoviruses remained seasonal. In 2020-21, we detected a virus in 54.1% of the hospitalised children: rhinoviruses in 41, RSV in 4 and other viruses in 1. This was significantly lower than the 71.6% in 2016-17: RSV in 130, rhinoviruses in 128 and other viruses in 83. Conclusion: Pandemic measures dramatically reduced childhood respiratory infections, particularly RSV, but were less effective at reducing rhinoviruses.
2022
acute communicable diseases; face masks; hospitalisation; respiratory viruses; social distancing
01 Pubblicazione su rivista::01a Articolo in rivista
The first COVID-19 lockdown resulted in most respiratory viruses disappearing among hospitalised children, with the exception of rhinoviruses / Nenna, Raffaella; Matera, Luigi; Pierangeli, Alessandra; Oliveto, Giuseppe; Viscido, Agnese; Petrarca, Laura; La Regina, Domenico Paolo; Mancino, Enrica; Di Mattia, Greta; Villani, Alberto; Midulla, Fabio. - In: ACTA PAEDIATRICA. - ISSN 0803-5253. - (2022). [10.1111/apa.16326]
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Utilizza questo identificativo per citare o creare un link a questo documento: https://hdl.handle.net/11573/1619761
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