Keywords:
Characteristics, Children, COVID-19, Pneumonia
Introduction
Pneumonia is the leading infectious cause of death amongst children
worldwide. It accounts for more than 138 million new cases and almost
one million deaths annually, mostly amongst children under 5 years
old1, 2. Numerous pathogens, both viral and bacterial,
are involved in pediatric pneumonia.
Research showed a
concomitant decrease in all‐cause
pneumonia during the COVID‐19 pandemic in China3.
These changes might have come from the competition of severe acute
respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) with other respiratory
viruses, but they were more likely to have come from improvements in
population hygiene practices to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission, such as
wearing facemasks, paying attention to hand hygiene4.
SARS-CoV-2 is the third zoonotic and highly pathogenic coronavirus to
emerge in the twenty-first century5. And the virus has
underwent frequent mutations and recombinations, yielding new variants
that can cross the species barrier6. The
World Health Organization (WHO) has
identified five variants of concern as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and
the latest one named
Omicron7. COVID-19
caused by SARS-CoV-2 emerged in December 2019 in Wuhan, Hubei Province,
China5. On 11 March 2020, the WHO declared the
COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the number of globally confirmed COVID-19
cases has been increasing exponentially, which has engendered
substantial health and economic burdens worldwide8.
Governmental agencies of different countries worldwide have been widely
promoting several measures to prevent the COVID-19 outbreak. Before the
vaccination programme at the end of 2020, the fight against the COVID-19
epidemic mainly relied on preventive measures, including encouraging
individual-level hygiene (wearing a mask outside, keeping social
distance, disinfecting with alcohol and washing hands frequently) and
community-level prevention measures (promotion of remote work and study,
suspension of mass gathering)9-12. These
non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) not only decrease the spreading
of the SARS-CoV-2, but also have
impact on the prevalence of other pathogens13-15.
Moreover, public health measures
during COVID-19 have led to an unprecedented change in social lifestyle
which might have effect on the allergen sensitization and micronutrient
levels in population16, 17.
In this context, our study aimed to
compare the pathogen, allergen and micronutrient characteristics of
pediatric inpatients with pneumonia prior to and during the COVID-19
pandemic in a large tertiary hospital in Shanghai, China. We present
this article in accordance with the STROBE reporting checklist.
Methods