{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,4,15]],"date-time":"2026-04-15T18:27:39Z","timestamp":1776277659851,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":27,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,27]],"date-time":"2024-02-27T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1708992000000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec><jats:title>Objective<\/jats:title><jats:p>This study aimed to investigate the epidemiological characteristics of common pathogens contributing to childhood lower respiratory tract infections (LRTIs) in Xiangtan City, Hunan Province before and during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title><jats:p>A total of 11,891 enrolled patients, aged 1\u2009month to 14\u2009years, diagnosed with LRTIs and admitted to Xiangtan Central Hospital from January 2018 to December 2021 were retrospectively reviewed in this study. Specifically, the epidemiological characteristics of these pathogens before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were analyzed.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Results<\/jats:title><jats:p>There was a significant decrease in the number of children hospitalized with LRTIs during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020\u20132021) compared to data from 2018 to 2019 (before the COVID-19 pandemic). Of these cases, 60.01% (7,136\/11,891) were male and 39.99% (4,755\/11,891) were female. 78.9% (9,381\/11,891) cases occurred in children under 4\u2009years of age. The average pathogen detection rate among 11,891 hospitalized LRTIs children was 62.19% (7,395\/11,891), with the average pathogen detection rate of 60.33% (4,635\/7,682) and 65.57% (2,670\/4,209) before and during COVID-19 pandemic, respectively. The detection rates of adenovirus (ADV), <jats:italic>bordetella pertussis<\/jats:italic> (BP) and <jats:italic>moraxella catarrhalis<\/jats:italic> (<jats:italic>M. catarrhalis<\/jats:italic>) decreased dramatically, while the detection rates of influenza viruses (IFV), parainfluenza viruses (PIV), respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), <jats:italic>haemophilus influenzae<\/jats:italic> (<jats:italic>H. influenzae<\/jats:italic>), <jats:italic>streptococcus pneumoniae<\/jats:italic> (<jats:italic>S. pneumoniae<\/jats:italic>), and <jats:italic>staphylococcus aureus<\/jats:italic> (<jats:italic>S. aureus<\/jats:italic>) increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. Overall, RSV, <jats:italic>mycoplasma pneumoniae<\/jats:italic> (MP), <jats:italic>H. influenzae<\/jats:italic>, and IFV were the major pathogens causing LRTIs in hospitalized children before and during the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec><jats:sec><jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title><jats:p>Public health interventions for COVID-19 prevention are beneficial to reduce the incidence of LRTIs in children by limiting the prevalence of ADV, MP, BP, and <jats:italic>M. catarrhalis<\/jats:italic>, but which have limited restrictive effects on other common LRTIs-associated pathogens. Collectively, the data in this study comprehensively investigated the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on the epidemiological characteristics of respiratory pathogens, which will be beneficial for improving early preventive measures.<\/jats:p><\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2024.1367614","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,27]],"date-time":"2024-02-27T04:13:26Z","timestamp":1709007206000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":7,"title":["Impact of normalized COVID-19 prevention and control measures on lower respiratory tract infection pathogenesis in hospitalized children"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"12","author":[{"given":"Yuan","family":"Feng","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Huaixiao","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bo","family":"Zhang","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yinfei","family":"Zhou","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Haibin","family":"Yuan","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"1965","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,2,27]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"291","DOI":"10.1007\/s00705-023-05891-7","article-title":"The changing pattern of common respiratory viruses among children from 2018 to 2021 in Wuhan, China","volume":"168","author":"Wan","year":"2023","journal-title":"Arch Virol"},{"key":"ref2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e22302","DOI":"10.1016\/j.heliyon.2023.e22302","article-title":"Epidemiology of respiratory pathogens in patients with acute respiratory tract infection in Xiamen, China: A retrospective survey from 2020 to 2022","volume":"9","author":"Hong","year":"2023","journal-title":"Heliyon"},{"key":"ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"216","DOI":"10.1016\/j.jcv.2013.06.042","article-title":"Patient characteristics and severity of human rhinovirus infections in children","volume":"58","author":"Lauinger","year":"2013","journal-title":"J Clin Virol"},{"key":"ref4","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"497","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(20)30183-5","article-title":"Clinical features of patients infected with 2019 novel coronavirus in Wuhan, China","volume":"395","author":"Huang","year":"2020","journal-title":"Lancet"},{"key":"ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"1294288","DOI":"10.3389\/fimmu.2023.1294288","article-title":"Analysis of the protective efficacy of approved COVID-19 vaccines against Omicron variants and the prospects for universal vaccines","volume":"14","author":"Chen","year":"2023","journal-title":"Front Immunol"},{"key":"ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"195","DOI":"10.1038\/s41579-022-00807-9","article-title":"The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on community respiratory virus activity","volume":"21","author":"Chow","year":"2023","journal-title":"Nat Rev Microbiol"},{"key":"ref7","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"535","DOI":"10.1186\/s12887-023-04246-0","article-title":"Comparison of respiratory pathogens in children with community-acquired pneumonia before and during the COVID-19 pandemic","volume":"23","author":"Tang","year":"2023","journal-title":"BMC Pediatr"},{"key":"ref8","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"120","DOI":"10.1007\/s00705-023-05752-3","article-title":"Immediate and long-term changes in the epidemiology, infection spectrum, and clinical characteristics of viral and bacterial respiratory infections in Western China after the COVID-19 outbreak: a modeling study","volume":"168","author":"Shi","year":"2023","journal-title":"Arch Virol"},{"key":"ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1007\/s44197-023-00168-3","article-title":"The impact of non-pharmacological interventions measures against COVID-19 on respiratory virus in preschool children in Henan","author":"Yan","year":"2023","journal-title":"China J Epidemiol Glob Health"},{"key":"ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","first-page":"e1054","DOI":"10.1093\/cid\/ciab942","article-title":"Chinese Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) etiology surveillance study team of acute respiratory infections. 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