Evidence map›Paper›PMID 39556174›Full record

ArticleEuropean journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology2025

Analysis of the potentially pathogenic bacteria of lower respiratory tract infections in children per-, during and post-COVID-19: a retrospective study.

Xuena Xu, Lingjian Meng, Jiaoyang Li, Yizhu Zhang, Bingjie Liu, Wujun Jiang, Chuangli Hao

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Article in European journal of clinical microbiology & infectious diseases : official publication of the European Society of Clinical Microbiology, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 3 papers.

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3citing papers in PubMed
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3 citing papers in PubMed.

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  3. Understanding the unconventional reemergence ofTranslational pediatrics · 2025
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5 · Who and what money

Authors and funding

7 authors.

Xuena Xu *Department of Respiratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Lingjian Meng *Department of Respiratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Jiaoyang LiDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Yizhu ZhangDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Bingjie LiuDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China.
Wujun JiangDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China. jwj8701@suda.edu.cn.
Chuangli HaoDepartment of Respiratory Medicine, Children's Hospital of Soochow University, Suzhou, China. hcl_md@sina.com.

Funding

the Autonomous Prefecture Science and Technology Programme Project YZ2022Y019the Ili State Institute of Clinical Medicine Research Fund Project Y120211H03the Jiangsu Province Key Research and Development Programme (Social Development Project) BE2021656the National Natural Science Foundation of China 82270018 and 82070009
6 · The paper itself

Abstract

backgroundThe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has caused significant changes in lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs). This study aimed to characterize potentially pathogenic bacterial infections in paediatric patients hospitalized for LRTIs per-, during and post-COVID-19.

methodsSputum culture data from 85,659 children with LRTIs at the Children's Hospital of Soochow University from January 2016 to May 2024 were analyzed for eight bacteria: Streptococcus pneumoniae, Haemophilus influenzae, Staphylococcus aureus, Moraxella catarrhalis, Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Acinetobacter baumannii. The data during the pandemic (2020-2022, during COVID-19) and after the pandemic (January 2023-May 2024, post-COVID-19) were compared with those before the pandemic (2016-2019).

resultsOverall, 85,659 children with LRTIs were enrolled. Of these, 42,567 cases (49.7%) were diagnosed in the pre-COVID-19 period, 22,531 cases (26.3%) during the COVID-19 period and 20,561 cases (24.0%) in the post-COVID-19 period. The overall positive rate for pathogenic bacteria was 37.1%, with the top three being S. pneumoniae (14.5%), H. influenzae (12.1%) and S. aureus (6.5%). Compared to the average pre-COVID-19 levels, the bacterial pathogen positive rate decreased by 3.5% during the COVID-19 period (OR: 0.94, 95% CI: 0.91-0.98) and by 23.4% in the post-COVID-19 period (OR: 0.66, 95% CI: 0.64-0.69). During the COVID-19 period, the positive rates for S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, E. coli, K. pneumoniae and mixed infections decreased by 11.7%, 35.3%, 22.2%, 33.3% and 45.7% respectively, while the positive rates for S. aureus, M. catarrhalis and P. aeruginosa increased by 21.7%, 44.7% and 25% respectively. In the post-COVID-19 period, the positive rates for S. pneumoniae, H. influenzae, E. coli, P. aeruginosa, K. pneumoniae, A. baumannii and mixed infections decreased by 50.0%, 7.4%, 22.2%, 50.0%, 44.4%, 60.0% and 32.6% respectively, while there was no statistical change in the positive rates for S. aureus and M. catarrhalis. Bacteria case detection decreases in 2020 (67.0%), 2021 (60.5%), 2022 (76.3%) and 2023 (72.7%) compared to predicted cases.

conclusionsMeasures to restrict COVID-19 as a driver of declining bacterial positive rates. Respiratory bacteria in children are change across COVID-19 phases, age groups and seasons. After COVID-19, clinicians should continue to increase surveillance for pathogenic bacteria, especially drug-resistant flora.

Indexed as

BacteriaBacterial InfectionsCOVID-19Respiratory Tract InfectionsAdolescentChildChild, PreschoolChinaFemaleHumansInfantMalePandemicsRetrospective StudiesSARS-CoV-2SputumBacteriaChildrenCOVID-19Lower respiratory tract infectionsSputum culture

Identifiers

PMID39556174

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Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.