Randomized trial investigates changes in respiratory virus patterns in children, implying increased susceptibility post-pandemic.
Key Points
This study aims to investigate changes in respiratory virus detection rates and coinfection patterns among children due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Retrospective analysis of mRT-PCR and COVID-19 real-time RT-PCR results from 128,148 nasopharyngeal swabs collected between 2013 and 2023.
Evaluation of coinfections using the Jaccard similarity coefficient (JSC) and construction of age-and period-specific coinfection networks.
COVID-19 positivity rate was 6.5%, while other respiratory viruses had a 55.2% positivity rate.
Post-pandemic, positivity rates for rhinovirus, enterovirus, bocavirus, parainfluenza virus 3 (PIV3), and RSV A increased notably in children under 7 years.
JSC analysis revealed stronger coinfection networks centered on rhinovirus-enterovirus-bocavirus-PIV3 interactions among younger age groups.