Viral Pneumonia during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2019-2021 Evoking Needs for SARS-CoV-2 and Additional Vaccinations
- PMID: 37243009
- PMCID: PMC10220939
- DOI: 10.3390/vaccines11050905
Viral Pneumonia during the COVID-19 Pandemic, 2019-2021 Evoking Needs for SARS-CoV-2 and Additional Vaccinations
Abstract
Coronaviruses can cause pneumonia, with clinical symptoms that may be similar to the symptoms of other viral pneumonias. To our knowledge, there have been no reports regarding cases of pneumonia caused by coronaviruses and other viruses among hospitalized patients in the past 3 years before and during coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). Here, we analysed the causes of viral pneumonia among hospitalized patients during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic (2019-2021). Between September 2019 and April 2021, patients hospitalized at Shuang Ho Hospital in north Taiwan with a diagnosis of pneumonia were enrolled in this study. Age, sex, onset date, and season of occurrence were recorded. Respiratory tract pathogens were identified with molecular detection using the FilmArray® platform from nasopharyngeal swabs. In total, 1147 patients (128 patients aged <18 years and 1019 patients aged ≥18 years) with pneumonia and identified respiratory tract pathogens were assessed. Among the 128 children with pneumonia, the dominant viral respiratory pathogen was rhinovirus (24.2%), followed by respiratory syncytial virus (RSV; 22.7%), parainfluenza virus (1 + 2 + 3 + 4) (17.2%), adenovirus (12.5%), metapneumovirus (9.4%), coronavirus (1.6%), and influenza virus (A + B) (1.6%). Among the 1019 adults with pneumonia, the dominant viral respiratory pathogen was rhinovirus (5.0%), followed by RSV (2.0%), coronavirus (2.0%), metapneumovirus (1.5%), parainfluenza virus (1 + 2 + 3 + 4) (1.1%), adenovirus (0.7%), and influenza virus (A + B) (0%). From 2019-2021, older patients (aged >65 years) with pneumonia tested positive for coronavirus most commonly in autumn. Coronavirus was not detected during summer in children or adults. Among children aged 0-6 years, RSV was the most common viral pathogen, and RSV infection occurred most often in autumn. Metapneumovirus infection occurred most often in spring in both children and adults. In contrast, influenza virus was not detected in patients with pneumonia in any season among children or adults from January 2020 to April 2021. Among all patients with pneumonia, the most common viral pathogens were rhinovirus in spring, adenovirus and rhinovirus in summer, RSV and rhinovirus in autumn, and parainfluenza virus in winter. Among children aged 0-6 years, RSV, rhinovirus, and adenovirus were detected in all seasons during the study period. In conclusion, the proportion of pneumonia cases caused by a viral pathogen was higher in children than the proportion in adults. The COVID-19 pandemic period evoked a need for SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory disease coronavirus 2) vaccination to prevent the severe complications of COVID-19. However, other viruses were also found. Vaccines for influenza were clinically applied. Active vaccines for other viral pathogens such as RSV, rhinovirus, metapneuomoccus, parainfluenza, and adenovirus may need to be developed for special groups in the future.
Keywords: COVID-19; SARS-CoV-2; vaccination; viral pneumonia.
Conflict of interest statement
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Figures
Similar articles
-
Viral and Atypical Bacterial Detection in Young Nepalese Children Hospitalized with Severe Pneumonia.Microbiol Spectr. 2021 Oct 31;9(2):e0055121. doi: 10.1128/Spectrum.00551-21. Epub 2021 Oct 27. Microbiol Spectr. 2021. PMID: 34704788 Free PMC article.
-
Respiratory Virus Surveillance Among Children with Acute Respiratory Illnesses - New Vaccine Surveillance Network, United States, 2016-2021.MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2022 Oct 7;71(40):1253-1259. doi: 10.15585/mmwr.mm7140a1. MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep. 2022. PMID: 36201373 Free PMC article.
-
The disappearance of respiratory syncytial virus and influenza viruses in children during the second year of the COVID-19 pandemic - are non-pharmaceutical interventions as effective as vaccines?Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2023 Apr;27(8):3777-3783. doi: 10.26355/eurrev_202304_32178. Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci. 2023. PMID: 37140326
-
Effects of Non-Pharmacological Interventions on Respiratory Viruses Other Than SARS-CoV-2: Analysis of Laboratory Surveillance and Literature Review From 2018 to 2021.J Korean Med Sci. 2022 May 30;37(21):e172. doi: 10.3346/jkms.2022.37.e172. J Korean Med Sci. 2022. PMID: 35638198 Free PMC article. Review.
-
Viral pneumonia in older adults.Clin Infect Dis. 2006 Feb 15;42(4):518-24. doi: 10.1086/499955. Epub 2006 Jan 6. Clin Infect Dis. 2006. PMID: 16421796 Free PMC article. Review.
Cited by
-
Four Transformer-Based Deep Learning Classifiers Embedded with an Attention U-Net-Based Lung Segmenter and Layer-Wise Relevance Propagation-Based Heatmaps for COVID-19 X-ray Scans.Diagnostics (Basel). 2024 Jul 16;14(14):1534. doi: 10.3390/diagnostics14141534. Diagnostics (Basel). 2024. PMID: 39061671 Free PMC article.
References
-
- Creager H.M., Cabrera B., Schnaubelt A., Cox J.L., Cushman-Vokoun A.M., Shakir S.M., Tardif K.D., Huang M.L., Jerome K.R., Greninger A.L., et al. Clinical evaluation of the BioFire(R) Respiratory Panel 2.1 and detection of SARS-CoV-2. J. Clin. Virol. 2020;129:104538. doi: 10.1016/j.jcv.2020.104538. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
-
- Eckbo E.J., Locher K., Caza M., Li L., Lavergne V., Charles M. Evaluation of the BioFire(R) COVID-19 test and Respiratory Panel 2.1 for rapid identification of SARS-CoV-2 in nasopharyngeal swab samples. Diagn. Microbiol. Infect. Dis. 2021;99:115260. doi: 10.1016/j.diagmicrobio.2020.115260. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
Grants and funding
LinkOut - more resources
Full Text Sources
Miscellaneous